Roblox Corporation has announced major restrictions for Roblox in an effort to prevent children under the age of 13 from being exposed to inappropriate content. From 18 November 2024, users under the age of 13 will not be able to access experiences with interactive social hangouts and free-form 2D user creation, and from 3 December 2024, they will also not be able to “play, search, and discover” unrated experiences.
Those in charge of those experiences will have until 3 December 2024 to fill out a questionnaire that will allow them to remain accessible for younger users. Creators must ensure all information about their experience is accurate and appropriate for their chosen user base, based on Roblox‘s recommendations.
Should this questionnaire not be filled out, the experience will be declared unrated, and will no longer be searchable by those under the age of 13. Direct links will still work, however. In future, Roblox plans to integrate this new questionnaire into the experience publishing process.
As for the restrictions on social hangouts and free-form user creation, that appears to be much stricter. Per Roblox, it must “address user behaviour that can potentially pose a risk to [its] youngest users,” and that means any experiences with social elements or interactive features, including white boards that can be drawn on, must be restricted.
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“Starting November 18, experiences with certain types of interactive features, specifically social hangouts and free-form 2D user creation, will only be playable to users over the age of 13,” Roblox Corporation said. “Hangout experiences are things like vibe games, clubs, socialising and supportive spaces where the primary theme or purpose of the experience is to communicate (e.g. in text or voice chat) with other users as yourself.”
Notably, the restrictions do not extend to experiences where players are role-playing as someone other than themselves. As for free-form user creations, their unmoderated nature poses a risk, and therefore experiences with these features will be heavily restricted.
There’s hope these added restrictions will help to protect young users of Roblox, and allay concerns about the platform being used to exploit children. While there is a long way to go to making a free-form online space like Roblox entirely safe for a young age group, these measures are a step in the right direction.
