Is Roblox Finally Making Things Safe for Kids?

droidgamers.com:

Roblox has been receiving some criticism lately due to certain incidents revolving around it. So, Roblox has finally stepped up their game quite literally and actually making efforts to make the game more kid-friendly and safe.

In the past few months, many parents have said that the anonymous nature of Roblox makes it easy for predators to abuse children. There have been cases where children were lured into private chats on other platforms.

Roblox has had to answer some tough questions about safety. That’s especially after a report by Hindenburg Research in October said it wasn’t doing enough to keep young users safe from inappropriate content.

To make Roblox safe for kids, they’re rolling out new policies on the platform over the next few months. Starting November 18th, there’s going to be a big shift in what younger users can do in terms of social interactions. Roblox is putting a halt to under-13s hanging out in Social Hangouts, where players can text and voice chat in real time.

Hangouts usually let players get super social and Roblox now realizes that it’s better suited for older users. However, under-13 players can still play most of the character-driven games like becoming a teacher, police officer or racing car driver, since these won’t fall under the new restrictions.

And from December 3rd, Roblox will require all game creators to clearly label their games for age-appropriateness. If a game doesn’t get a kid-friendly rating, it’ll be invisible to the under-13 crowd. Creators will have to fill out a questionnaire to ensure their games pass the kid-appropriate test.

Finally, from December 18th, free-form user creation is going to be off-limits for the under-13 players. It’s basically anything where you can type or draw without preset filters. They can build houses or create outfits as long as the pieces have been pre-approved by Roblox moderation. Roblox wants to keep the creative spark alive for kids but only in spaces that they’ve made sure are safe.

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