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‘I hate myself. I don’t want to be here any more…’

Tucked away in the immensely popular online game Roblox, you’ll find heartbreaking messages like this from children across the globe, who have come to visit one of the site’s specially created ‘depression room’.

Although Roblox is targeted at children aged 13+, in reality, is often played by far younger and older people.

As of August 2020, it had over 164 million monthly active users, including more than half of all American children under 16 – and the majority of games allow children to enjoy any niche interest through the safe space which is the anonymous internet. 

Want to ride the London Underground network? Sure, there’s a map for that.

Fancy creating your own airline? Yep – you can even ‘hire’ for a managing director and ground crew.

However, behind the fun maps and team-based activities is a selection of darker games.

If you search ‘depressed’ on Google, you’re automatically shown organisations like Mind, the NHS and the Mayo Clinic.

For children searching the same word on Roblox, a far different result appears.

*Warning: Potentially distressing content and mentions of suicide and self-harm.*

Instead, a selection of ‘depressed’ games are laid out on a plate for the user to choose from.

Some are more on the melancholy side, such as a grassy field where it’s raining with soft music in the background.

However, others include gravestones and the option for a player’s character to ‘cry’ or ‘weep’. 

Then there’s the game where your avatar can sit down in a basement with a ladder and pile of boxes in the darkness.

Called the ‘depression room’, there’s even a sign above the door confirming this. Your character automatically bows their head once they’re sat in the seat.

From that room you can take a lift to the top of a skyscraper where your character stands by the railings – looking out over the word ‘Alone’ in blue on an opposing building.

The game has had 5.6 million visits and is advertised as ‘for all ages’.

It also directs users to a group chat called ‘sociopath’ where a number of young people are clearly making great efforts to help each other.

However, among the messages of supports, others are far more disturbing.

One reads: ‘Jan 2, 2023: I need to kill somebody and break there spine.’ [sic]

As users stumble on their spelling and their messages clunky, it’s a devastating reminder that those making these shocking statements are just children.

As they hunch over a laptop or tablet, they are desperately seeking answers from a game that once brought them joy – but also now encourages despondency.

‘Pain engolfs [sic] my body’, one user writes. Others asked for advice on self-harm.

Referring to themselves as a ‘big family’ they often wish each other well before they exit the game – a reflection perhaps of the comfort they feel here, which they find unachievable in real life.

Parents don’t realise the ‘scale’ of what children can access on the game, one father tells Metro.co.uk.

The 47-year-old dad now limits what his 10-year-old son plays.

Henry, not his real name, only realised what his son Murray* was doing when he took the iPad out his hands at their home near Birmingham.

He’d urged his son to switch to doing his homeworking after the boy had spent hours in his online world instead.

Henry says he had seen that Murray had been playing in the most popular sad room available, in the ‘basement’ area where the character sits on a solitary chair in a dark room.

‘We were already worried he was spending too much time on Roblox,’ Henry explains.

‘I’d been really shocked and genuinely kind of scared on his behalf when I saw that he was playing the sad room.

‘I’d taken the iPad off him and even in couple seconds of looking at the screen I knew something was off.

‘Literally my heart just sank when I saw it as the visuals was just something you just don’t associate with a kids game.’

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