A look at virtual currencies like Roblox's Robux, which have become many kids' preferred way to be paid for chores or receive an allowance
almost all of it from sales of Robux. Parents should make sure that their kids are 13 when they debut and explain the manipulative business model https://www.wsj.com/... @claudia_gman : Kids Don't Want Cash Anymore-They Want ‘Robux’. About half of Roblox's 60 million daily users are under the age of 13. https://www.wsj.com/... @richardattiasas : How kids and teens spend money on the Roblox platform and interact with the environment provides a window into the future of the #metaverse. #WeNeedToTalk https://www.wsj.com/... Anthony DeRosa / @anthony : Sure, but what's the move in Robux today? https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Robux has quietly become the payout rail for childhood labor: kids now ask for the currency instead of cash for chores and allowances, which keeps every dollar inside Roblox's own economy. With about half of the platform's 60 million daily users under 13, the WSJ flags the model as manipulative enough that parents are advised to gate participation at age 13 and explain how it works.
This sits on top of an already contested track record. A 2021 report found Roblox made it difficult for young developers — some children themselves — to withdraw money earned through microtransactions (difficulty withdrawing earnings), and coverage of its child-developer pipeline documented stress and exploitation alongside the success story. The allowance shift extends that closed loop from developers to consumers: even a kid's pocket money now routes through Roblox's ledger.
First-order effects
- Parents paying chores in Robux convert family cash transfers into locked-in platform credit, giving Roblox a recurring, parent-funded purchase stream from users too young to hold a payment card.
Second-order effects
- The same closed-loop structure that traps allowance money also traps creator earnings, sharpening scrutiny of Roblox's take rate — pressure that later surfaced in its plan to let creators keep 50–70% on real-currency desktop purchases versus 30% on Robux ones (real-currency revenue split).
Third-order effects
- If platform-issued currency becomes a generation's first money, game platforms consolidate the roles of bank, employer, and mall for minors — inviting the kind of child-financial-protection regulation that followed earlier youth-facing digital economies, though no such framework exists yet in this coverage.
The trend: Childhood spending and earning are migrating from cash into platform-issued virtual currencies, turning game companies like Roblox into the first financial institutions kids ever deal with.