The studio confirmed it would be adding several new parent controls to the title in the coming months to protect children, including restricting users under 13 from messaging others outside of games.
Starting today (18.11.24), parents will be able to view their children’s activity in- game, set a daily limit for the title and will have access to their friends list.
There will also be new “content maturity limits” for the game known as “minimal”, “mild”, ‘moderate” and restricted” that will allow parents to better decide what content is age-appropriate for their children - with kids under nine years old being restricted to the first two categories without needing parental consent.
In a statement, the CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) Stephen Balkam said: “FOSI applauds Roblox’s ongoing efforts to prioritize the safety and well-being of its youngest users.
“By empowering parents with new controls that allow them to oversee their child’s activity in a flexible, meaningful way, ‘Roblox’ is taking significant steps toward building a safer digital environment.”
‘Roblox’ has been the subject of heavy controversy recently, after a report from Bloomberg last month revealed the platform had been used to trade indecent images of children in games, with the studio itself also reporting there had been over 13,000 cases of child exploitation last year.