Child safety in Roblox has been an ongoing issue, and to tackle the threat of grooming and inappropriate 'experiences' (what Roblox calls its games and hangout spaces) Roblox Corporation is implementing some new rules. This includes introducing parental controls for anyone under 13 and now banning kids from certain spaces within Roblox.
"As we grow and learn, we continually enhance our safety measures to keep users of all ages safe on our platform, and we need your help to achieve this," a Roblox update post says. "As part of this, we want to let you know about two changes:
"By default, users under the age of 13 will not be able to play, search, and discover unrated experiences. This will ensure that parents and users have more clarity into the types of content available on Roblox and will help them make more informed choices about what they want to play. We will be restricting access to Social Hangouts and Free-form User Creation experiences to users ages 13+."
Social Hangouts in Roblox can be anything from games, hubs and social spaces that allow users to communicate with one another through text or voice chat. However, this does not include any roleplaying or real-life simulation experience in which players "adopt a different role or are provided with items to role-play with."
Previously, these spaces have been some of the least safe experiences for kids on Roblox. A Bloomberg report revealed that a paedophile had actually used this to groom, abduct, and sexually assault a 15-year-old girl just 18 months after the community had outed him as a predator.
Call me crazy, but if adults are on a gaming platform meant for kids causing problems, then they should probably be the ones restricted from spaces, not children. Unfortunately, that would likely be too hard to regulate and enforce, so parental controls and age restrictions may be the best course of action for now.
In the meantime, creators on Roblox must fill out a questionnaire by December 3, 2024, for each experience that they want to make available for users under 13, as "parents and young users need accurate information about the experiences they are playing." If creators don't complete the questionnaire, then their creations will be registered as "unrated" and will be filtered out of any search or public recommendations for players under 13. "To better align with industry standards to promote usability and safety, in the future, we envision the questionnaire becoming more closely integrated into the publishing process."
