Roblox has adopted several new policies designed to give parents control over how their children use the expanding online gaming platform. reported that the company has created a new type of parental account so that a guardian can monitor their children's online activities and friends. Roblox now also requires parental permission for users under 13 to access certain features. Users ages 9 and younger will also need permission to access game modes with moderate violence or crude humor. The publication said these changes will take effect next month.
Concerns about the safety of young players have been a recurring problem for Roblox. The platform faced tech-policy/2022/10/roblox-sued-for-allegedly-enabling-young-girls-sexual-financial-exploitation/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:lawsuit;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”> alleging exploitation of a minor in 2022. was reluctant to host the game on its hardware over questions of whether Roblox was exposing children to inappropriate sexual content, and carried the same justification earlier this year. Hindenburg Research recently published a report on predatory behavior and deceptive financial activity on Roblox (although that source has a shaky reputation of its own). An investigation by Bloomberg Business Week found that at least two dozen people have been arrested by US law enforcement since 2018 for abusing or kidnapping child victims they met on Roblox.
