Roblox adds new rules for players under 13 following scathing child safety report

Roblox has rolled out new policies aimed at restricting the content children on the platform can access and how they're able to interact with other players, as well as a new type of account that gives verified parents the ability to monitor and manage what their kids are doing in the game.

Users under the age of 13 will no longer have access to most chat functionality on the Roblox platform outside of games under the new policy, initially announced earlier this month, and their search results and recommendations will exclude any games without maturity labels. Roblox is also making changes to its content labels: Instead of age ratings, Roblox will apply labels "based on the type of content users can expect in an experience," a change it said "should provide parents greater clarity to make informed decisions about what is appropriate for their child."

Users under age 9 will be restricted by default to content labelled "minimal" or "mild," although "moderate" content will be accessible with parental consent. Roblox developers have until December 3 to update their games to comply with the new labelling system, or they'll be excluded from under-13 players by default.

Also notable is the addition of a new parental account type. After verifying themselves with some form of ID or credit card, parents can create and link their accounts with their child's, which will give them access to their child's friends list and the amount of time they've spent in the game. They'll also be able to set daily time limits on their child's account.

The new policies and account type were originally announced in October, without detail, shortly after an investment research firm accused Roblox of being a "pedophile hellscape."

That eye-catching allegation was just the latest criticism of Robox's child safety record: Turkey banned the game outright over concerns of "child exploitation" in August; just prior to that, Bloomberg reported on a Roblox content creator who used the game to groom, abduct, and sexually assault a 15-year-old girl a full 18 months after the community had outed him as a predator. In February, the company was sued by parents who said the game is "build on the exploitation of children," a charge that Roblox Studio head Stefano Corazza denied a few months later by saying Roblox doesn't exploit kids, but rather is "offering people anywhere in the world the capability to get a job."