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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Josh Taylor Technology reporter

Roblox rolls out age-verification features in Australia as gaming platform insists child social media ban should not apply

Roblox characters
Roblox’s chief safety officer, Matt Kaufman, described Roblox as an ‘immersive gaming platform’ which did not fall within the scope of Australia’s under-16s social media ban. Photograph: Roblox

As Roblox rolls out new age assurance features to prevent teens and kids from chatting with adults they do not know, it has insisted Australia’s upcoming under-16s social media ban should not apply to its services.

The company, which is releasing the new features in Australia first, said that from Wednesday users will be able to voluntarily have their age estimated by going through the Persona age estimation technology, built into the Roblox app. It will access the camera of a user’s device and take a live estimation of their age based on their facial features.

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