Roblox is implementing new restrictions to limit children’s access to certain types of experiences on the platform, following reports alleging that it has been used to facilitate child abuse.
One of these new measures, detailed in a post on Roblox’s developer forum, will prevent users under 13 from accessing experiences that involve “certain types of interactive features.”
Specifically, this restriction will apply to “social hangouts,” where the main purpose is for users to communicate through text or voice chat, and “free-form 2D user creation” activities, where users can interactively draw on chalkboards or whiteboards. This restriction is set to begin on November 18.
In addition to these restrictions, Roblox will soon prevent kids under 13 from playing, searching for, or discovering unrated experiences. This policy will take effect after December 3.
Creators who want their games accessible to players under 13 will need to complete a questionnaire and ensure their content aligns with Roblox’s All Ages or 9+ ratings. These content requirements will start to be enforced in 2024.
Reports have surfaced recently about Roblox’s allegedly inadequate protections for young users.
In response, Roblox announced in October new safety measures for pre-teen users, as well as a new type of account allowing parents to manage their children’s activities on the platform.
Roblox spokesperson Juliet Chaitin-Lefcourt emphasized the company’s commitment to safety in a statement: “We’re constantly strengthening our safety systems and policies — we shipped over 30 improvements this year and we have more to come.
As a company that’s transparent with our community of developers, we needed to share key information about the upcoming changes prior to launch.
The DevForum has all the information on the upcoming changes that we’re sharing at this time. It’s important to know that at Roblox, we’re constantly innovating Safety and we’ll never STOP.”
