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MA (WGGB/WSHM) — Roblox launched new age-based parental safety tools on June 16, but attorneys representing families in lawsuits against the company and behavioral health experts say the changes do not go far enough
Roblox, which launched roughly two decades ago as a platform where children could build virtual worlds, has evolved into a collaborative game where players can meet and chat online. The company reported between 70 and 100 million daily active users in the past year. Roughly 36 percent of those users are under age 13 and the majority are under age 16
In recent cases, adults used Roblox to target minors, leading to dozens of lawsuits, including cases filed by attorneys general in Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Florida
Roblox Vice President of Global Affairs Nicky Jackson Colaco said the updates center on two new age-based account tiers with different default safety settings. Roblox Kids is designed for children ages five to eight, with chat turned off by default. Roblox Select is for ages nine to 15, where chat features can be enabled with parent permission and is limited to approved users in the same age group
“On our side, we want to make parental controls really easy to use,” Colaco explained. “We also want parents to know that if they are not able to go in and change any settings, that we know that we have a responsibility to make that default experience something that they can feel good about.”
“The goal of these accounts is to really provide ways for kids to grow up safely on Roblox until they’re ready to experience the full set of experiences on Roblox,” she added
Attorney Jamie Powers, who represents families suing Roblox through Dolman Law Group, said the controls are overdue
“I absolutely think that it’s a little too late because the fact that this company had the ability to do this years ago when they first started getting the complaints about what was happening on their platform,” Powers explained
Powers also argued the new tiers still rely too heavily on AI and self-reported ages and can be worked around by both teens and predators. “It’s still relying on a program and AI to flush out the different tiers and the different ages,” she noted. “There’s still going to be many ways that kids and the predators are going to bypass those.”
Roblox disputes that criticism and said the new system is designed to keep kids on the platform with stronger guardrails as they get older
Behavioral Health Network (BHN) in Springfield said it is seeing more children struggling to log off and more families trying to set limits. Kathy Mague with BHN said features built into games are designed to keep children engaged
“There are specific features that are built into the games by design to hook kids early, keep them engaged, make it more and more difficult for them to turn the games off,” Mague explained. “If you’re noticing that your child is spending a significant amount of time on games, recognize that you’ll need to put some limits on that.”
Mague added children often find ways around safety settings when left unsupervised
“The best parental control is parental involvement,” she said. “There are so many ways to get around those parental controls.”
Mague recommended parents keep screens out of bedrooms, set a hard time limit, and conduct routine checks on who their child is messaging. She said sitting down to play with a child is also a way to better understand how a game works
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