Following Years Of Criticism, Roblox Restricts ‘unrated Experiences’ For Under-13 Users In Child Safety Bid

Popular gaming platform Roblox is taking steps towards protecting the safety of its minor users, it revealed in a note addressed to creators on November 6. Roblox, which allows users to create their own games and share them with other players, will now be restricting kids under 13 from finding games that may be inappropriate for their age, alongside the platform’s social hangouts feature and 2D free form user creation.

Roblox will now require creators to answer a questionnaire if they want their game to be available to children under 13. This age group will not be able to view or search for “unrated experiences” by default, from December 3. In addition, creators have to ensure that their game’s description and thumbnail matches the “All Ages or 9” content recommendations, which still includes “mild violence, heavy unrealistic blood, mild crude humor, and/or mild fear.”

Roblox described social hangouts as club-like social places within the platform, while 2D free form user creation gave users the ability to draw 2d art and share them with other users. Both of these features will now be inaccessible to users aged 12 or younger.

Why This Matters:

Just last month, activist investor Hindenburg published a report on Roblox, where it termed the platform as a “pedophile hellscape.” The report described chatrooms where users traded child pornography openly, alongside unmoderated games centering around topics like mass shootings and sexual abuse, accessible by any age group. Hindenburg further alleged that the platform outsourced its moderation to call centres in the Philippines to cut costs and was prioritising growth over children’s safety.

A number of news reports have also covered problems such as children being asked images of themselves, or being exposed to explicit material. In one instance, an 11 year old girl was kidnapped by a man she met on Roblox.

The safety features presented may be insufficient as well. Concerns that arise include the fact that it will be a fairly straightforward matter for creators to lie about the content of their game, which would be difficult to find out without human moderation. Secondly, the safety features are not applicable to children aged 13 and above, which leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. Finally, Roblox is yet to announce any initiative to ban or remove existing users or communities who pose a risk to child safety.

Also Read:

• All you need to know about Australia’s plans to ban social media for teens and its age verification tech
• After India and US, Australia Pushes for Stricter Social Media Age Limits
• Age Verification Using Govt IDs Likely Under India’s Data Protection Rules: Report

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