Roblox’s top executive found himself on the defensive during a widely watched podcast meant to highlight new parent resources. Instead, the discussion zeroed in on the platform’s child-protection record. What began as a conversation about age verification for chat access quickly turned tense as questions arose about whether Roblox had expanded faster than its investments in user safety.
At stake is the challenge confronting one of the world’s largest user-generated gaming platforms: policing millions of users’ ages, safeguarding privacy, and preventing harms like grooming, scamming, and explicit content—without ruining the experience for legitimate players. With tens of millions of daily users, many of them children, policy shifts on chat and verification reverberate in schools, living rooms, and developer communities worldwide.
The Age Check and Face Scan Debate
Roblox plans to require users to complete an age verification step—likely involving facial recognition—before accessing chat. The company calls this “age assurance,” not full identity verification. The goal is to make it harder for adults to pose as minors and to tailor safety settings to different age groups.
Privacy advocates have raised pressing questions: Who has access to facial data? How long is it stored? What are the error rates across ages and skin tones? And what happens when a teenager is mistakenly flagged as underage? Roblox, which has used third-party vendors in the past, says its new system combines automation with human review to reduce bias and errors. However, performance data from the system has yet to be released.
Regulators are watching closely. Agencies such as the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office and the Age Verification Providers Association have encouraged “age assurance” approaches instead of blanket ID checks. Across the industry, facial age estimation has gained traction; Instagram and other platforms have already tested it in pilot programs, citing faster sign-ups and reduced data retention compared with document-based methods.
Why AI Isn’t a Silver Bullet
The interview grew particularly heated when the discussion turned to artificial intelligence. Some argued that stronger AI moderation—not just stricter access controls—is the real key to child safety. Roblox has poured resources into machine learning models that scan text, images, audio, and 3D assets to detect grooming patterns, sexual content, and scams before they spread. Its transparency reports describe a three-layered system: proactive detection, behavioral monitoring, and human escalation.
Still, experts caution that AI cannot capture context. Organizations like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Thorn have documented how grooming often unfolds privately over time, bypassing automated filters. Many safety advocates now endorse a balanced strategy—combining age assurance to limit risky contact, AI for scale, social friction for unknown interactions, and rapid human response when kids report harm.
The challenge is scale. With more than 70 million daily users, even minimal false negatives result in thousands of missed incidents. Overly strict filters, meanwhile, frustrate older teens and creators who rely on voice and text to collaborate. Publishing transparent metrics—accuracy rates, response times, and performance by age group and language—would help Roblox build credibility and measure progress over time.
A Company Under Regulatory Pressure
Roblox’s user base is aging up. Most new growth now comes from players 17 and older, according to Apealea Sherrod, Roblox’s vice president of content and digital community. Yet millions of children under 13 still clamor to play, creating a tricky policy landscape. The same tools that enrich social play for older users can expose younger ones to risk.
The wider internet context is sobering. The Internet Watch Foundation reports record levels of child sexual abuse material online, putting platforms with open chat features under heavy scrutiny. Regulators are responding in kind. U.S. enforcement of COPPA and broader FTC actions on deceptive design have reshaped industry practices, while the U.K.’s Online Safety Act and European Union rules demand that platforms identify and mitigate systemic risks. For Roblox, its new age verification system is as much a move to satisfy compliance expectations as it is a product change.
What to Watch Next
Transparency will determine success. Data about verification accuracy, appeal outcomes, chat activity, and incident response times will matter far more than broad assurances. Independent audits—from child-safety labs to privacy certification programs—could validate Roblox’s claims and empower families and developers to make informed choices.
Equity should also remain central. The company ought to publish how its age estimation performs across demographics and devices, and explain alternatives for users without cameras. Clear parental dashboards and plain-language guides would demystify the process and prevent over-restricting legitimate young players.
The tense podcast exchange underscored a basic truth: safety conversations on massive platforms are inherently uneasy because they involve trade-offs. If Roblox pairs its new verification system with transparent data, faster human response, and robust collaboration with researchers and child-protection groups, this moment of public scrutiny could ultimately lead to meaningful progress for the children who use it most.
