Safety Snapshot: December
Age Checks for Chat Roll Out in Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands; Launching Soon Globally
Starting today, Roblox requires users in Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands to complete an age check to access Roblox chat. In early January, this requirement will be extended to all other regions where chat is available. Proactive age checks are an important next step toward what we believe will be the gold standard for communication safety. Our vision is to provide all users with a safe, age-appropriate experience, and Roblox is the first online gaming and communication platform to require facial age checks to access chat. Over 21.4 million users have already completed the process voluntarily. Visit our Safety Center to learn more about our age-check process.
Just like in the physical world, we believe conversations that happen between older teens may not be appropriate for adults and vice versa. So, with the launch of age checks, we are also limiting communication between adults and minors. We’ve partnered with child development experts to help us define common-sense age groups that can chat with each other on Roblox.
The National Crime Agency chairs a law enforcement group that includes the FBI, Australian Federal Police, and New Zealand Police. A spokesperson for the agency said, “Robust and highly effective age assurance technology plays a critical role in maintaining the safety of child users online, helping to protect them from harmful and illegal content and high risk interactions, whilst they develop age-appropriate digital literacy skills.”
While it’s widely understood that all large online platforms have their share of young users, Roblox is unique in that we acknowledge this fact and take an all-ages approach to safety. We do not encrypt communication between users, we monitor all activities for signs of critical harms, we do not allow users to share images or videos in chat, and we swiftly report potential issues to law enforcement when detected.
Our Multilayered Approach to Safety
Just as carmakers don’t rely on just seatbelts to keep drivers safe, Roblox employs a multilayered approach to safety. Modern cars have many elements (airbags, sensors, etc.) that work together to keep drivers safe. While age checks on Roblox represent a significant improvement over the industry standard of self-declared age, they are just one layer in our overall approach to safety. Beyond this new technology, we maintain policies and Community Standards that are purposely stricter than those of most other platforms. We do not allow profanity or sharing of images or personally identifiable information between users who are not Trusted Connections. For users younger than 18, we do not allow depictions of drugs or alcohol.
Advanced AI models monitor the billions of pieces of content added to Roblox every day and block or remove content that violates our Community Standards. We back up these models with thousands of safety professionals because we know AI is just one layer in this process. We also partner closely with parental advocacy and mental health organizations, law enforcement, and government officials on best practices, the latest policies and guidelines, and new research about what parents and users expect from us.
Our goal is to catch any problematic content before users see or interact with it. We know no system is perfect, so we also make it easy for users to report anything they may spot. These reports not only help us remove inappropriate content, but also help us train and strengthen our system. We believe age checks will be an important new piece of our sophisticated safety ecosystem.
Age checks help us provide all of our users with age-appropriate experiences and communication, but we know there’s always more to be done. We’re continually optimizing and adding layers to our larger system as new technology becomes available. We’ve released over 145 safety enhancements this year alone, and we have more to come.