Sending kids out to deliver papers or work in burger restaurants is also a good experience for them, even if it’s unpaid.

The reason child labor is illegal is not because we’re under the wrong assumption that work experience itself is bad for them.

The main reason it’s illegal is that it creates perverse incentives against schooling.

Which is funny because schooling is also unpaid labor for a child. In fact, they may be bamboozled into tens of thousands of dollars of student debt.

Plus one. Kids should absolutely be allowed to do certain work. They banned it with literal “save the children” dogma and pictures of children in copper mines and working the looms. Let the fucking kids toss a news paper. That’s such bullshit to outlaw the fucking concept of people working before the age of 16 or whatever.

What's happening on Roblox is not at all like programming a computer in your living room.

Roblox is encouraging kids to develop games for a platform they make money off from. They are then paying them with in-game money to compensate them. This looks very much like a subcontractor relationship, but with payment in company store money.

They are also aware that large groups are collecting and behaving like game dev studios, and these new child developers are getting pulled in by those organizing them. There are reports that abusive behavior is occurring in these groups, but because they are not on Roblox, the company sees no problem.

You can still develop software for Roblox and never see a problem. Still, it doesn't mean that problems are non-existent.