It’s no secret that most of the players in Roblox games are children, often pre-teens. Thus, some of the dangers present in Roblox have worried parents and authorities. Among the biggest accusations is that Roblox is also exposing children to threats like pedophilia, pornography, violent content, and online abuse. To this, Roblox is overhauling its policy to ensure a safer environment for its players.
According to The Verge, Roblox is poised to require parents to grant permission to children under 13 if they want to access the game’ and its features’s chat features. Meanwhile, children under nine will require parental permission to play content with a “moderate” label.
Additionally, Roblox will change its experience guidelines into a new content label system. This will supposedly be in effect in fall or autumn. As for parents, Roblox is also giving them a chance to better monitor their children. They can do this through a new type of account. This parental account can then be linked to the children’s accounts.
You Can Now Also Monitor Your Child in Roblox
Parents will also be able to use these parental accounts for insights about their children’s behavior in Roblox.
“The updates that were shared via email are part of Roblox’s commitment to making the platform one of the safest online environments for our users, particularly the youngest users. We’re excited to share more information next month,” as iterated by Roblox‘s Juliet Chaitlin-Lefcourt.
Hence, parents can rest easier now, especially after Bloomberg has reported more than 13,000 incidents of child exploitation took place in Roblox. More than two dozen people were also arrested for abusing minors and contacting them in-game.
Countries like Turkey have even banned Roblox entirely in August as an absolute measure to protect children. Outside of the online space, a mother from Florida even instructed her son to use Roblox to kill an infant. Such bizarre incidents are likely out of Roblox‘s sphere of responsibility, however, Roblox‘s new policy changes might also help against it.
