Roblox bans children from ‘social hangout’ spaces

Roblox plans to block children from accessing certain types of experiences following reports alleging the platform is enabling child abuse.

Roblox says new measures will prevent children under 13 from accessing experiences with “certain types of interactive features” In a developer forum post. These include “Social Hangouts,” whose primary purpose is to communicate with other users via text or voice chat, and “Free-Form 2D,” where players can do things like draw on blackboards or whiteboards. Includes a user-created experience. This change will take effect from November 18th.

Another change will prevent children under 13 from playing, searching, or discovering unrated experiences. This change will take effect after December 3rd. If you’re a creator and would like to allow players under the age of 13 to access your game, please complete the survey and ensure that all information about your experience meets Roblox’s current All Ages or 9+ rating requirements. Must be. Roblox says it will begin enforcing these requirements “next year.”

There have been multiple recent articles alleging Roblox’s lack of protections for children. be bloomberg article The title is “Roblox’s Pedophile Problem.” In October, the company announced changes for pre-teen users and a new type of account that will allow parents to manage their children on Roblox.