Roblox Blocks Under 13s From DMing Others Outside Games Amid Scrutiny Over Child Protection
Roblox has announced significant changes designed to protect children who play on the platform amid increased scrutiny and concern from parents.
As part of the changes due in the coming months, users under the age of 13 will no longer be able to directly message others on Roblox outside of games or experiences (also known as platform chat).
Roblox will also introduce a built-in setting that limits users under the age of 13 to public broadcast messages only within a game or experience. By default, users younger than 13 will not be able to directly message others. Parents can change this setting in Parental Controls.
From today, users under the age of nine will only be able to access games or experiences with content labeled Minimal or Mild, with parental consent required to access Moderate content.
Roblox's changes come on the heels both of a damning Bloomberg report this summer about the prevalence of child predators on the platform and, more recently, a report from investment firm Hindenburg Research that accused the company of, among other things, being a haven for groomers and pedophiles due to a lack of up-front screening of new accounts.
It claimed to have found open trading of child pornography on the site as well as violent and hateful speech and sexually explicit content in numerous games marketed to kids on the platform. Roblox responded, saying that "safety and civility" have been "foundational" to Roblox since its inception. However, Hindenburg followed up by pointing out that it had not addressed allegations of Roblox being a "pedophile hellscape."
“We’ve spent nearly two decades building strong safety systems, but we know there’s always more to be done,” Matt Kaufman, Chief Safety Officer at Roblox, said in a note to the press issued today.
“Last quarter saw a record average for daily active users on Roblox - over 88 million - and as our platform has grown in scale, we have always recognised that our approach to safety must evolve with it. Today’s launch
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