Parents are helping their children bypass Roblox age checks and play as adults

Roblox says it has extensive ways to check a user’s age to make sure ‘people aren’t simply holding up a video of somebody else, or using a magic marker to put a moustache on their face and claim that they’re much older’. Photograph: Wachiwit/Alamy

Parents have been caught helping their children bypass age checks and play as adults on Roblox, the gaming company has said, forcing rechecks on accounts deemed younger than they appeared.

In December last year, Roblox rolled out new features to prevent children from chatting with adults they do not know by making users who wish to use the chat function pass through facial age assurance that then groups them in similar age group cohorts until they turn 21.