“This privacy protection implementation of thoughtful age assurance for its uniquely mixed audience of youth and adults will strengthen protections for young players while respecting Roblox user rights,” said Jules Polonetsky, CEO of the Future of Privacy Forum.
Parents will continue to have access to their child’s linked account and can modify their child’s birthday through Parental Controls after completing face age estimation. Visit our Help Center for more information on how to verify age.
Assigning users to similar age groups with age-based chat
Implementing age checks allows us to implement age-based chat, which helps users better understand who they are communicating with and limits chat between minors and adults. Facial age estimation technology makes this possible on a large scale. To keep our youngest users safe, the Chat in Experience will be turned off by default for users under nine unless a parent provides consent after age verification. Chatting outside of Experiences is prohibited for users under 13 years of age.
As part of our ongoing consultation with child development experts, we’ve defined common-sense limits on who can chat together on Roblox. After users complete the age verification process, we will notify them of their assigned age group: Under 9, 9-12, 13-15, 16-17, 18-20, or 21+. Users will be able to chat with people in their age group and similar age groups, as appropriate.
For example:
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Alyssa (approximate age 12): Experience Chat features Alyssa to chat with users 15 years of age or younger. All users 16 years of age or older are prevented from initiating or joining chats with him.
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Marcus (approximate age 18): Marcus has access to chat with users 16 years of age or older and can add a younger sibling as a trusted connection, as long as they are 13 years of age or older.
We recognize the importance of family members playing, learning and communicating directly with your child on Roblox. Through Trusted Connections, age-verified users 13 years of age or older can chat freely with people they know. We will soon introduce a dedicated solution for direct interaction between parents and children under 13 or siblings of different age groups.