Roblox: new safety features leave kids 'at risk'

New safety features on the popular children's gaming platform Roblox don't go far enough, experts have said.

Roblox introduced the new features after warnings that children were being exposed to inappropriate content, and adults were creating fake child accounts to message, harass or groom them. The changes are a step in the right direction, say experts, but will still leave vulnerable kids at risk.

What is Roblox?

Roblox is a "gigantic platform" where users can create, share, and play games, said the BBC. It hosts some 40 million user-generated games and experiences and has more monthly users than Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation combined. Last year, the "vast empire" averaged more than 80 million players per day – and 34 million of them were children under the age of 13.

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Young people are drawn to the range of experiences Roblox offers, from "raising and dressing up virtual pets to playing an online game of hide and seek using GPS", said Joanne Orlando on The Conversation.

So what's the controversy?

Roblox has been "dogged" by claims that some children have been exposed to "explicit or harmful" content, with multiple reported allegations of "bullying and grooming", said the BBC.

There has been material featuring players dressed up as members of the KKK, wearing swastikas and using racist terms, said The Times. And there have been incidents of "sexual exploitation" and "grooming by paedophiles", said The Conversation's Orlando.

What are the new safety features?

The new features limit who children can communicate with on Roblox, and what content they can play with.

Parents already had the ability to set time limits on play and to prevent their child from accessing experiences beyond a set maturity level, but they will now be able to block individual experiences, too. Another new feature allows parents to block users on their child's friends list. Users under 13 are already barred by default from exchanging direct messages with other users, unless a parent changes this setting.

However, to access the new controls, parents must have their own Roblox account, to which must be verified either by submitting credit card details or a government-issued ID. They can then can link their account with their child's account.

What do experts say?

The new safety features only apply to children under the age of 13, who have parental controls set up on their accounts. This means only those with "vigilant and engaged parents – the children we need to worry least about" – will be better protected, Ian Acheson, a former director of community safety at the Home Office, told The Times. "For other kids, perhaps the more vulnerable, they still remain at risk." The company said it takes "proactive steps" such as built-in filters on text chats to identify and remove material that breaches its community standards, including extremist or sexualised content.

And however vigilant parents may try to be, constant supervision has its limits. "We all know that, with the best will in the world, life sometimes gets in the way", Mumsnet boss Justine Roberts told the BBC. If you've got several children, "you probably can't 24/7 watch everything they're doing, even if you've got all your parental controls set".

The new measures have "significant limitations" Ashton Kingdon, a criminology lecturer at The University of Southampton, told The Times. There is still "no proper user verification to prevent adults from creating fake accounts".

Roblox co-founder and CEO Dave Baszucki insisted his company is vigilant in protecting users. But his "first message" to parents is "if you're not comfortable, don't let your kids be on Roblox".