With pressure growing on Roblox to do something about its reputation as, in the recent words of Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill, "a breeding ground for sex predators," Roblox Corporation says it's going to expand its use of "facial age estimation technology" to everyone who uses its built-in communications systems.
Roblox said the new age estimation tech, combined with Roblox's existing ID verification and parental consent tools, "will provide a more accurate measure of a user's age than simply relying on what someone types in when they create an account." The company also plans on rolling out new systems that will restrict communications between adults and minors unless they know each other in real life.
"These added layers of protection will help provide users with access to developmentally appropriate features and content," Roblox said in an update. "We hope this move sets a standard that other gaming, social media, and communication platforms follow."
Roblox's facial age estimation works by analyzing a selfie to estimate your age and sort you into a rating group—under 13, 13+, or 18+—with varying restrictions for each category. This isn't a new technology: The ESRB proposed using facial scanning technology to estimate people's ages in 2023, an idea the FTC rejected a year later because it was unclear exactly how the technology would work, although it left open the possibility for future adoption. Perhaps with good reason, as the tech has proven somewhat dodgy: People in the UK, for instance, were famously able to get around Discord's age verification system by using Death Stranding's photo mode.
Still, age estimation technology is growing in popularity—Facebook recently made my mom submit a selfie to verify her account, which was a tremendous headache for a woman of a certain age who's not very computer savvy (and her son)—and some systems, like Microsoft's incoming Xbox age verification, have proven tougher to fool.
It's possible Roblox will do a better job of it as well—the company has previously claimed growing success with machine learning voice chat moderation systems—although in broad strokes, 'we are training machines to evaluate and identify us with ever-greater levels of precision and accuracy' may not strike everyone as "better" in the truest sense of the word.
Still, Roblox clearly has to do something if it wants to avoid regulatory crackdowns and potentially huge civil penalties. It has an absolutely massive audience—one recent weekend apparently saw more concurrent players than all of Steam combined—but it's also facing a growing backlash against a perceived inability to keep young kids away from the worst of the internet.
Roblox has been dogged by allegations that it's unsafe for kids for years, but 2025 has seen the temperature rise dramatically. Louisiana sued Roblox Corporation in August, saying its lack of safety protocols "endangers the safety of the children of Louisiana," and Democrat politician Ro Khanna has also criticized Roblox, saying it needs to "do more to protect children, provide more support to parents, and strengthen law enforcement protocols that help bring predators to justice." An August crackdown on "vigilantes," including a ban of popular Roblox YouTuber Schlep, attracted the attention of Chris Hansen, formerly the host of the early 2000s television series To Catch a Predator. Hansen is reportedly now working on a documentary about Roblox.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
