Roblox Inc. has announced changes to its child safety policy that will affect how teen users interact with its popular gaming platform. This follows accusations that the company has frequently failed to protect its predominantly young player base, most recently with a damning report calling Roblox an “X-rated pedophile hell” that exposes children to “grooming, pornography” , violent content and extremely abusive remarks.” “.
Back in July, Bloomberg revealed that Roblox reported 13,316 incidents of child exploitation last year, with more than two dozen people arrested for abusing minors after contact in the game. Short-selling firm Hindenberg Research then released a report in August that not only accused Roblox of intentionally inflating player numbers to investors but also shared numerous examples of Roblox’s apparent failure to keep children safe.
In both cases, Roblox fought back against the accusations, calling the Hindenburg research report “completely misleading” and insisting that the Bloomberg article contained “obvious mischaracterizations.” Despite Roblox’s ongoing protests, the company has now announced several changes to its child safety policy.
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as According to The VergeRoblox sent an email to parents this week announcing that children under 13 will soon need parental permission by default to access Chat features, while children under 9 will also need permission to play content with a maturity rating of ” The experience is “moderate,” which can include “moderate violence or crude humor,” Roblox says, assuming parents and users haven’t made manual changes yet, these restrictions will automatically lift when users reach certain age milestones.
Additionally, Roblox will launch a new type of account for parents next month that, when linked to their child’s account, will allow them to update parental controls from their device and gain insights into their child’s online activity and friends. The company said the changes are part of its “commitment to making the platform one of the safest online environments for our users, and follow updated guidelines introduced in July that require creators to base their work on content based on content type instead of age to mark in-game experiences.” youngest users”.
Roblox has long been controversial in the gaming space, as evidenced by People Make Games accusing Roblox of “exploiting” young developers on the platform in 2021, many of whom are under the age of 18. Roblox CEO Stefano Corazza expressed displeasure earlier this year, after telling Eurogamer that the company “employs some teenagers who have millions of players,” before later suggesting that kids making money on the platform wasn’t exploitation, but a job “Gift”. A Roblox spokesperson later contacted Eurogamer to stress that the company does not employ minors, despite Corazza’s claims.