Roblox is starting to roll out some recently-announced child safety features, and the updates include some new limitations for how users under 13 can communicate on the platform. Beginning Monday, users younger than 13 won’t be able to DM players outside of games or experiences on Roblox. And they’ll need parental permission to be able to send in-game DMs — though this change won’t be fully implemented across the platform until the first quarter of 2025.
The changes follow recent reports highlighting instances of Roblox failing to protect children. A big article from Bloomberg described how predators on the platform use chat to communicate with kids. And a report from Hindenburg Research described Roblox as “an X-rated pedophile hellscape.” These new restrictions on chat will build on Roblox’s automatic chat filters intended to block users from sharing personal information.
In addition to the changes to chat, Roblox is rolling out its previously-announced accounts for parents and caregivers that will let them remotely manage things like a child’s screen time limits. Previously, parents had to have physical access to their child’s account to set parental controls.
Roblox is also starting to use content labels to describe experiences instead of rating experiences for specific age groups. That means, for example, a “moderate” experience may contain things like moderate fear or crude humor. Users under the age of 9 will only be able to access experiences with “minimal” or “mild” content labels unless a parent gives permission. And Roblox will stop users under 13 from accessing social hangout experiences and experiences with free-form writing or drawing.