Roblox steps up age checks and groups younger users into age-based chats

The gaming platform Roblox is displayed on a tablet, Oct. 30, 2021, in New York.

Roblox is stepping up its age verification system for users who want to chat with other players and implementing age-based chats so kids, teens and adults will only be able to communicate with people around their own age.

The moves come as the popular gaming platform continues to face criticism and lawsuits over child safety and a growing number of states and countries are implementing age verification laws.

The company had previously announced the age estimation tool, which is provided by a company called Persona, in July. It requires players to take a video selfie that will be used to estimate their age. Roblox says the videos are deleted after the age check is processed. Users are not required to submit a face scan to use the platform, only if they want to chat with other users.

Roblox doesn’t allow kids under 13 to chat with other users outside of games unless they have explicit parental permission — and unlike different platforms, it does not encrypt private chat conversations, so it can monitor and moderate them.

While some experts have expressed caution about the reliability of facial age estimation tools, Matt Kaufman, chief safety officer at Roblox, said that between the ages of about 5 to 25, the system can accurately estimate a person’s age within one or two years.

“But of course, there’s always people who may be well outside of a traditional bell curve. And in those cases, if you disagree with the estimate that comes back, then you can provide an ID or use parental consent in order to correct that,” he said.

After users go through the age checks, they will be assigned to age groups ranging from under 9, 9 to 12, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, 18 to 20 and over 21. Users will then be able to chat with their age group or similar age groups, depending on their age and the type of chat.

Roblox said it will start enforcing age checks in Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands in the first week of December and the rest of the world in early January.

A growing number of tech companies are implementing verification systems to comply with regulations or ward off criticism that they are not protecting children. This includes Google, which recently started testing a new age-verification system for YouTube that relies on AI to differentiate between adults and minors based on their watch histories. Instagram is testing an AI system to determine if kids are lying about their ages.

“While we welcome the new age ID measures as a step forward, it remains to be seen how effective it will be and whether Roblox will stay the course on a voluntary measure once public scrutiny fades,” said Shelby Knox, director of online safety campaigns at the advocacy group ParentsTogether. “We have to remember this comes from a platform that has historically been slow to address systemic predatory behavior despite being marketed to and used by very young children.”

Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press