Roblox has adopted several new policies designed to give parents control over how their children use the vast online gaming platform. Bloomberg reported that the company has created a new type of parental account to allow parents to monitor their children’s online activities and friends. Roblox currently requires parental permission for users under 13 to access certain features. Permission is also required for users under the age of 9 to access game modes that contain moderate violence or crude humor. The publication said these changes are expected to take effect next month.
Concerns about the safety of young players are a recurring issue for Roblox. The platform faced a lawsuit alleging exploitation of minors in 2022. Sony has been reluctant to host the game on its own hardware, citing questions about whether Roblox exposes children to inappropriate sexual content, and for the same reason announced the launch of Roblox in Turkey earlier this year. led to a ban. Hindenburg Research recently released an exposé about predatory and misleading financial practices at Roblox (though the source itself has a shaky reputation). At least 20 people have been arrested by U.S. law enforcement since 2018 for abusing or kidnapping child victims they met on Roblox, a Bloomberg Businessweek investigation found.
