Roblox is making significant updates to its parental controls after reports described the platform as a “pedophile hellscape,” highlighting concerns about child exploitation. In response, Roblox will now require parents to create linked accounts, granting them better oversight of their children's activity, including in-game communication and content restrictions. These updates follow multiple allegations about Roblox's failure to protect minors from inappropriate content and predators. The company has faced criticism for years over similar issues but asserts that safety remains a priority.

Previously, Roblox’s parental controls were pretty basic, relying on a PIN system to block access to certain content or spending limits. However, with these new changes, parents are required to link their accounts to their child’s, allowing them to update controls remotely, view their child's friend lists, and even track screen time. Moreover, users under nine and under thirteen will need permission from their parents to engage with more mature content or utilize chat features.

This move comes amid growing concerns from watchdogs and law enforcement about predators exploiting Roblox’s lack of stringent safety measures. In 2023, the platform reported over 13,000 cases of child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), leading to multiple arrests. However, this did little to quell criticism that Roblox remains a risky environment for children, particularly as allegations of child pornography trading and inappropriate game content continue to surface

Roblox has faced scrutiny for years regarding its lax safety protocols. Past incidents, such as children being lured into inappropriate “sex rooms” or encountering sexually explicit avatars, have been widely reported. A lawsuit in 2022 accused Roblox of enabling both financial and sexual exploitation of minors, while earlier reports pointed out recreations of violent events like mass shootings within the game.

While Roblox touts itself as one of the safest online environments, some critics argue the company has not done enough to address the underlying issues. This latest wave of parental control updates seems to be part of an ongoing effort to rectify these problems, though it remains to be seen whether these changes will be enough to rebuild trust with concerned parents and advocacy groups

As Roblox continues to grow in popularity, particularly among young children, the platform will face increasing pressure to create a safer, more controlled environment. Other major tech companies, like YouTube and TikTok, have implemented similar changes to address concerns over child safety and online exploitation. Roblox’s willingness to overhaul its parental controls may be a step in the right direction, but its long-term effectiveness will depend on how well these tools are enforced and whether the company continues to invest in safeguarding its youngest users.

Here is the email in its entirety:

Dear parent,

We’ve been working on a series of important changes that we’ll be making to your child’s account, [NAME], next month.

About Roblox accounts with parent privileges

Next month, we’re changing the way parents manage their child’s experience on Roblox by introducing Roblox accounts with parent privileges. After linking your account to your child’s, parents can view and update parental controls for their child all from their own device. Parents also get access to insights about their child’s Roblox usage, such as their daily screen time and on-platform friends.

Given these changes, starting next month, parents will no longer be able to set a parent PIN, use Account Restrictions, or receive account-related notifications to their parental email. Instead, you will need to use an account with parent privileges. Existing verified parental emails on child accounts will continue to be used for account recovery. Any settings previously set using a parent PIN will not change, but you will need an account with parent privileges to make updates going forward.

As always, if users are interested in an added layer of security on their account, you can set up 2-factor authentication.

Updated content maturity settings

As we shared with the community in July, to help provide parents and users more clarity into the types of content available on Roblox, we’ll soon begin labeling experiences based on the type of content users can expect in an experience, rather than by age. Experience Guidelines will be renamed Content Labels, and you’ll be able to set limits on the type of content accessible to your child through the content maturity setting in parental controls.

New default settings for users under the age of 13

As part of Roblox’s commitment to safety, we are also updating certain default settings for our youngest users. Starting next month, users under the age of 13 will need parent permission to access certain chat features. Users under the age of 9 will also need parent permission to access experiences with content maturity “Moderate,” which may contain things like moderate violence or moderate crude humor.

Your child’s settings will be updated when they reach certain ages, if you and your child haven’t previously made changes to them. You and your child will be notified of these updates in advance.

We will share more information on these setting updates when the changes go into effect next month.

Next steps

To continue receiving notifications about your child’s account related to spending or other important activity, you’ll need to set up a Roblox account with parent privileges and link to your child’s account. When these changes take effect, your child will receive a notification inviting them to add a linked parent account, and we’ll send you an email with instructions.

Since day one, Roblox has been committed to building safety features and tools into the design of our products. We will always continue to explore different ways to update our parental controls to make them even more useful for parents.

Roblox

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