What Parents Need to Know About Roblox’s New Age-Based Protections

Over the past year, we’ve required age checks to chat, announced new age-based accounts, and added tools to help parents navigate Roblox and the digital world with their child. Today, as we begin rolling out Roblox Kids and Roblox Select accounts in Australia, Indonesia, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, we want parents to understand how these changes will affect the access their children will have at different ages. The global rollout of these accounts will begin in early June.

These new accounts bring age checks, content ratings, ongoing game reviews, and parental controls into an easy-to-understand framework for kids, teens, and parents. Below, we’ll walk through how our standard settings work at different ages and how parents can adjust those settings if they like. Roblox evolves as users grow, giving them more freedom as they mature—while keeping parents behind the wheel so they are the ones navigating these decisions for their family.

“New Roblox Kids and Roblox Select accounts are a big win for parents,” said Australia-based father Denny Handlin, a member of Roblox’s Global Parent Council. “The Parent Council has been discussing where parents could have more direct controls, and Roblox is delivering with the launch of new, expanded parental tools in this update. Being able to approve games and customize the experience to fit our own children’s needs lets them enjoy the magic of Roblox while we stay in the driver’s seat. It’s fantastic to see a platform taking the right steps to ensure our kids can play and learn with total confidence.”

Understanding Roblox Kids and Roblox Select

We designed Roblox Kids and Roblox Select accounts to provide children and teens with an age-appropriate experience on Roblox. That means 5- to 8-year-olds will not have the same access on Roblox as 9- to 15-year-olds or users older than 16. When we understand how old users are, we can tailor their accounts for the best experience and, most important, limit contact between children and adults they don’t already know.

Users can complete an age check in one of three ways:

1. Users younger than 16 can have a parent with a linked account verify their birth date.

2. Users with a valid government ID can use ID verification.

3. Or users can complete a quick, secure Facial Age Estimation process. The technology Roblox uses provides a fast, easy check via a user’s device camera. All images and video are deleted after processing to protect user privacy.

The technology we use for age estimation has been tested and certified by third-party labs, achieving accuracy (a Mean Absolute Error) of within 1.4 years for users younger than 18. It’s categorically more accurate than self-declared age, but as with most things in life, it’s not 100% perfect. So we’ve developed ways for users and parents to update their age if necessary:

• Users who have an estimated age of 18 or older can access a one-time reset in their Account Settings, which will prompt them to redo their age check.

• Parents can correct their child’s age via Parental Controls once after their initial age check.

• Users with a valid government ID can also use ID verification to correct their age.

Behind the scenes, we continuously evaluate user behavior, using multiple signals to detect users who are significantly older or younger than their profile says. If we detect this type of mismatch, we’ll prompt the user to complete a new age check.

Once their age check is complete, users will automatically be placed into one of the following account types:

Roblox Kids: For users 5-8. All chat is disabled. A linked parent can allow in-game chat. Users can play games that passed our expanded selection process and have a Minimal or Mild rating. These accounts have a blue background to make them visually distinct at a glance.

Roblox Select: For users 9-15. Users can play games that passed our extended selection process and have a Minimal, Mild, or Moderate rating. Chat settings vary by age and region—see specific details by age here. Where chat is available, kids and teens can chat with users in their age group. If available, they can also chat with Trusted Friends, a special title for people that a child knows outside of Roblox.

Roblox: The full Roblox experience is for age-checked users 16 and older. They can play all games except those rated Restricted (18+) and chat is enabled.

All games uploaded to Roblox go through our moderation systems and are given a clear content maturity rating. For Roblox Kids and Roblox Select accounts, we’re adding additional reviews and vetting, including a continuous selection process that goes above and beyond our standard screening. That includes new requirements for developers who want their games to be available to users younger than 16. In addition, Roblox Kids and Roblox Select catalogs will not include any of the following: games with social hangout or free-form drawing features, games that feature sensitive issues, Roblox Moments (where users share clips of their gameplay), or in-game one-to-one chat.