(Photo : Roblox, Lionel BONAVENTURE, AFP / Screenshot taken from Getty Images)
Roblox is set to implement new policy changes that were designed to address child safety issues by giving parents more control.
The company announced that the changes would affect the way that pre-teen users can interact with its gaming platform. The situation comes after various accusations that it has consistently failed to protect its predominantly young player base.
Roblox's Policy Changes
There has also been a recent report that called Roblox an "X-rated pedophile hellscape" that supposedly exposed children to "grooming, pornography, violent content, and extremely abusive speech."
A report in July 2024 by Bloomberg revealed that Roblox reported 13,316 instances of child exploitation in 2023. It was also found that more than two dozen people were arrested for abusing minors after contacting the children in-game.
Later, a report in August 2024 from Hindenberg Research accused Roblox of deliberately inflating player numbers to investors. They shared several examples of the company's apparent failure to keep children who use the platform safe, according to Eurogamer.
Roblox responded to both reports, calling Hindenberg Research's conclusion "simply misleading." It also insisted that the Bloomberg report contained "glaring mischaracterizations." Despite this, the company has now announced changes to its child-safety policies.
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The company reportedly sent out an email this week addressed to parents where it announced that children younger than 13 years old will soon have to get parental permission to access "chat features" by default.
On the other hand, children who are younger than nine years will need parental permission before they can access game modes with moderate violent or crude humor. Roblox noted that the policy changes will be implemented next month, Engadget said.
Addressing Child-Safety Failures
For some time now, many people have been concerned about young people's safety on Roblox. In 2022, the gaming platform faced a lawsuit that claimed the exploitation of a minor. Even Sony was hesitant about hosting the game on its hardware because of the various issues.
Despite the upcoming policy changes, a Roblox spokesperson declined to provide further details about them for now. The company only said that the changes are part of its commitment to making sure that the platform is one of the safest online environments for its users, especially the younger kids.
In July 2024, Roblox also announced that it would start labeling games based on the type of content that they feature instead of by age. The policy changes are viewed as significant as nearly half, or 40%, of Roblox's 80 million daily active accounts are under the age of 13, according to BNN Bloomberg.
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