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Long reads about the parts of the internet that are hard to see from the outside.

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Series · 5 parts

Roblox's dark side

Roblox is one of the largest children's platforms ever built. This series looks at what happens around its edges: who gets hurt, who makes money, and the status games its players invent.

  1. Child safety: how a children's platform ended up in court

    Grooming, the investigations that documented it, the wave of state lawsuits, and what the new age checks do and do not fix. Includes a practical section for parents.

    3 October 2026 · 14 min read

  2. The Roblox black market

    Discount Robux, stolen limiteds, account theft, Robux casinos and the trade in pets and knives. How a toy currency became worth stealing.

    3 October 2026 · 12 min read

  3. E-gangsters and flexers

    Da Hood, crews, stomping, Headless and Korblox. A field guide to the kids playing tough and playing rich, and why it matters more than it looks.

    3 October 2026 · 11 min read

  4. Ro-gangs: inside the crews

    Ranks, tryouts, uniforms and wars. Who runs a Roblox gang, where the money goes, and how a feud in a game climbs to doxxing and real-world threats.

    3 October 2026 · 12 min read

  5. In-game con artists

    Trust trades, fake middlemen, quick switches and sob stories. A catalogue of the cons run inside trading games, why they work on children, and five rules that stop them.

    3 October 2026 · 11 min read

Series · 5 parts

Discord's dark side

Discord is where conversations go when they leave the game. This series looks at what its private rooms hide: who reaches children there, who steals accounts, and what happens when a chat app has to start asking for ID.

  1. Child safety: the rooms nobody else can see

    How adults reach children in private chats, what the prosecutions and five state lawsuits say, what Discord has changed, and what a parent can actually switch on.

    3 October 2026 · 9 min read

  2. 764 and the coercion networks

    The groups the FBI ranks among its most serious threats: who they target, what they force children to do, the warning signs, and why Brazil switched off Discord video.

    3 October 2026 · 8 min read

  3. Scams and stolen accounts

    Free Nitro, QR codes, "try my game" and "I accidentally reported you". How Discord accounts are taken, why two-step verification does not always help, and five rules that do.

    3 October 2026 · 8 min read

  4. Extremists, leaks and the private server

    Charlottesville, Buffalo, the Pentagon leaks and a summons to Congress. What each case showed about rooms that only their members can see, and what it did not.

    3 October 2026 · 7 min read

  5. Age checks and the ID breach

    Face scans, ID uploads and the 70,000 identity documents exposed in 2025. Why Discord is checking ages, what went wrong, and what the trade-off really is.

    3 October 2026 · 8 min read

Reference

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