eSafety found in its tests that Roblox still allowed adult users to contact kids.
Roblox has committed to a “court-enforceable undertaking” to implement changes that would better protect children from grooming and sexual abuse on its platform, according to Australia’s eSafety commission. The online safety regulator discovered earlier this year that Roblox was still allowing contact between adults and children, even though it has already rolled out new measures over the past few months and despite engaging extensively with the gaming platform for two years.
Specifically, tests eSafety had conducted showed that adults could still send connection requests to Australian children without parental consent and that children and adults could still view and respond to one another’s posts on community forums. It also found that anybody on the game could still view an underage user’s connections, profiles, biographies, account names, avatar images and other information, with no option to restrict their visibility.
Roblox rolled out mandatory age verification in late 2025, starting with Australia, most likely due to eSafety’s work. There were issues with the rollout, with kids spoofing its age check system, but Roblox was adamant that its technology works. After that initial release, Roblox started requiring age verification in the US to be able to use the in-game chat. By mid-May this year, the platform segregated users into three age tiers: Kids, Select and regular Roblox. Kids accounts can only access games with Minimal or Mild content ratings, with chat off by default and a full suite of parental controls. The new age-gated account tier system was implemented globally in June.
The company “believes it is meeting its obligations under the Online Safety Act,” eSafety said. Nevertheless, it has agreed to introduce changes and additional safety measures, including a way to make sure adults aren’t able to contact children they don’t know without parental consent. It also has to make children’s accounts private by default, provide users with accessible reporting mechanisms and having a third-party auditor assess the effectiveness of its safety measures. It will have three months to put those measures in place, or else eSafety could ask the court to compel Roblox to comply.
Roblox has been dealing with child safety issues for years and is facing lawsuits filed by several states in the US. In May, it agreed to pay Nevada a $12 million settlement and to introduce a verification system that requires users to submit government-issued IDs and to go through facial age estimation. Under its current system, users only need to complete one of the two methods to verify their ages. It also vowed to to prevent users under 16 from messaging adults unless they have been designated a “trusted friend” that can be assigned to users via QR code.
Credit: Source link
