The platform now allows parents of players under 13 to follow their children’s activity on the platform from their own account.
The video game publisher Roblox unveiled new features on Monday which should strengthen the protection of young players on its platform, including content labeling and more parental control. If this virtual universe seeks to increase its user base among adolescents and young adults, those under 13 still represent the majority of attendance. Roblox now allows parents of players under 13, from their own account and their smartphone, to follow their children’s activity on the platform without having to connect to that of their offspring.
Parents can notably control the time spent on the platform as well as the list of contacts, according to a press release published on the group’s website. Another new feature: players under 13 will no longer be able to contact other users outside of the games and “experiences”programs created by Internet users. Roblox has also developed a label system for these “experiences”which identifies the types of content that may be inappropriate for children.
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The creators of“experiences” must provide information relating to the content, including the presence of violence, blood, crude language or alcohol, so that the platform can give it a label and an age recommendation. This update comes just over a month after a hedge fund, Hindenburg Research, published a research note highly critical of Roblox’s management.
The authors of the report called the game “abominable den of pedophiles”which exposes, according to them, “children exposed to sexual predation, pornography, violent content and extremely aggressive language”. In 2023, an investigation by the Bloomberg agency showed that at least 24 people had been arrested since 2018 in the United States for having physically assaulted minors met on Roblox.
“Security has always been a fundamental aspect of everything we do at Roblox”said the platform’s security manager, Matt Kaufman, in the press release. The president of the association for the protection of children and families on the internet FOSI (Family Online Safety Institute), Stephen Balkam, quoted in the press release, estimated that “Roblox (was) taking an important step towards establishing a safer digital environment”.
