Roblox plans new age-based accounts for child safety 

Roblox is updating its child protection features again, rolling out restricted Kids accounts for users ages 5 through 8 and Roblox Select accounts for users 9 through 15, both with parental controls and other age-based restrictions.  

Users will be required to go through an age verification process, generally based on live selfies or a government-issued ID—or be effectively restricted to content approved for the youngest users. Since January, age verification has also been required to use the platform’s chat features, with users under 18 generally restricted to chatting people relatively near to them in age. 

“We’ll be going through a transition period where we’ll let all of our existing users know about the changes so that they can go through the age-check process, but it is not required,” says Matt Kaufman, the gaming platform’s chief safety officer. “If users are happy with the same games which are in Roblox Kids and they don’t want to chat, then age check is not required.”  

It’s the latest update to Roblox’s kid safety features after the company has repeatedly come under fire, and been named in dozens of lawsuits including some brought by state attorneys general, for allegedly exposing kids to child predators and explicit content. Roblox, which serves 144 million daily active users and has at least 2 million users creating content including games, remains massively popular with kids and teens, with nearly half of U.S. residents under 16 reportedly using the platform.  

Kids accounts, for those under age 9, will also now have a distinctive color, designed so parents can see at a glance if their kids are, in fact, using the correct account type. Those accounts will also have chat features turned off, unless enabled by a parent, and will be restricted to games rated “minimal” or “mild” under Roblox’s content maturity rating system. (The company plans to deploy industry-standard ratings, like the Entertainment Software Rating Board ratings used in the United States, in the near future). Chats on Roblox are already heavily moderated, with no ability to send photos or video, but malicious users have reportedly found ways to invite kids to chat with them on less-moderated platforms. 

Users between 9 and 15 with Roblox Select accounts will be able to additionally access games rated “moderate,” and they’ll gradually gain access to chat functionality at certain age milestones, but they’ll still be subject to parental controls. And users with Kids or Select accounts will be restricted from games featuring “sensitive issues, social hangouts, or freeform drawing” by default, according to the company. 

Once users turn 16, they’ll be able to use more full-fledged accounts, though some games with adult content—like “strong violence”, references to alcohol and gambling, and “romantic themes”—are still restricted to users 18 and up. 

“Knowing how old users are has a lot of benefits for the entire Roblox community,” Kaufman says. “We can deliver a safer and more civil experience to our users, and when we group users of like ages together when they’re communicating with each other, we know that that creates a more civil experience.” 

Age checks can generally be done through the Roblox app in a few seconds, with captured video data deleted after a user’s age is confirmed, though the company may ask users to repeat age checks if their behavior on the platform doesn’t match their recorded age. The company says about half of its 144 million daily active users have already gone through the age verification process, and it believes the system has an “average error of about plus or minus 1.4 years” for users under 18, Kaufman says. Parents can correct kids’ recorded ages if needed. 

Roblox games will also need to be released to users 16 and up before they can be approved for Kids or Select account access, says Eliza Jacobs, Roblox’s VP of safety product policy. That will give the platform time to collect any user reports of inappropriate content and monitor data from its real-time moderation system before a game is made available to younger users.  

“These signals will provide a higher degree of certainty that the content is appropriate for younger kids and teens,” she says. 

Roblox will also require creators of games intended for players under 16 to have an active Roblox Plus subscription, have two-factor authentication enabled to reduce the chance of account hacking, and go through ID verification—or be connected to a verified parent account if under 16.  

Parents will also be able to see what games their kids are playing and block specific games, and they will be able to approve their kids to access specific games that aren’t in the Kids or Select catalogs. But in general, the company hopes that age-based default settings will help to protect kids without their parents needing to set specific controls.  

The new settings are expected to be in place by early June. 

View the full article