By AFP and Kontur | 2025-12-10

Eight- and nine-year-olds telling a Kremlin internet regulator they want to flee the country was never part of Moscow's plan. Yet Yekaterina Mizulina says her inbox has been overwhelmed with children begging her to undo Russia's latest move in its tightening online crackdown: the blocking of the wildly popular game Roblox.

The comments, which she published on her Telegram channel this week, set off a coordinated backlash from pro-government accounts, exposing the political sensitivity surrounding how Russia regulates what young people see and do online.

Anti-Mizulina campaign

Mizulina, who leads the Kremlin-aligned Safe Internet League and has been sanctioned by the European Union for supporting state censorship practices, said many young users have been pleading with her for help since access to Roblox was restricted.

According to the monitoring project Botnadzor, her remarks drew an immediate response: thousands of pro-Kremlin accounts on VKontakte mounted a campaign to discredit her, accusing her of exaggeration, inconsistency or overreacting to what they framed as typical childhood distress.

Lawmakers also rebuked her. Alexander Yushchenko, a senior member of the State Duma's information policy committee, said the public debate had become mired in "manipulations," arguing that Mizulina's visibility mattered more to her than the substance of the issue.

Moscow's ban and its justifications

Russia formally blocked Roblox on December 3, accusing the US-owned platform of distributing extremist materials and promoting "LGBT propaganda."

The platform -- which allows users to build their own games and share them with others -- was Russia's most downloaded mobile game of 2023, according to Russia's Vedomosti newspaper.

In a statement published by Russian news agencies, Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor said Roblox had become rife with "inappropriate content that can negatively impact the spiritual and moral development of children."

"Children in the game are subjected to sexual harassment, intimate photos are tricked out of them, and they are coerced into committing depraved acts and violence," it said.

The Roblox Corporation says it moderates all content through human review and artificial intelligence tools, including to remove "exploitative content."

Around 100 million people use Roblox daily, with under-13s accounting for around 40 percent of its 2024 users, according to the company.

Users began reporting problems accessing the game in Russia earlier on December 3, according to sites monitoring internet outages.

The Roblox ban comes as Russia continues to tighten control over foreign digital platforms. Authorities have repeatedly threatened to block major Western services and said they were considering barring WhatsApp, citing concerns about its ability to prevent crime.

Rights advocates view these measures as part of a broader state effort to monitor online activity and limit outside influence over Russia's information space.