The Korea Gamers Association on Thursday urged government authorities to take action and improve ratings classification rules over controversies involving the concealment of information on probability-based items and allegations of historical distortion on metaverse platform Roblox.

The association said Roblox provides millions of user-generated content (UGC) offerings on its platform in the form of individual games. But it has been designated a self-rating classification operator under the Game Industry Promotion Act, and is operating after obtaining a ratings classification for the entire Roblox platform as a single game rather than classifying individual content.

The association said individual games within Roblox are effectively not fulfilling obligations to disclose probability-based item information by using the single-game classification structure.

It also raised the lack of qualitative control over content as a problem. Recently, content with potential to distort history has circulated on Roblox, including material that disparages the May 18 Democratization Movement and content titled "That Day's National Assembly" that evokes a specific incident.

Lee Cheol-woo (이철우), a lawyer who serves as the association's chairman, said, "The current situation, where content that distorts historical facts is being exposed to young students, is concerning." He said government agencies must designate Roblox as a self-rating classification operator through administrative measures and force transparent self-rating classification of individual game content within it.

The association said the incident should be used as an opportunity to re-establish game classification standards across metaverse platforms. It pointed to the fact that many pieces of content that function as games exist within other metaverse platforms, including Naver Z's Zepeto, but are not classified as games.

Lee added, "We must not leave in place the situation where regulations under the Game Industry Act are avoided simply because something carries the label of metaverse." He said system improvements are needed under the principle of same content, same regulation to protect users.