There are calls for Roblox to be included in Australia’s under-16s social media ban, with warnings that it has many of the same dangers to children as other platforms that are set to kick off kids.
So what is Roblox, and should parents be worried about it?
What is Roblox?
Roblox is less a game and more a world of games. Users can play and chat with millions of others across the world in mostly free games often made by other users or amateur developers.
It runs on smartphones, tablets, Mac and Windows computers, PlayStation and Xbox.
Currently children can chat to their friends, and other random users on the platform, meaning the game also serves as social media and messaging for those who aren’t there just to play games.
Why do kids like it?
When someone posed this question on Reddit, the common response was that they’re kids, they like things designed for kids and Roblox is easy to play. If parents don’t understand the appeal, it’s because they’re not kids.
A 2024 eSafety study found it was the second-most popular game among young people in Australia, behind Minecraft and ahead of Fortnite.
What are the concerns about Roblox?
The ability for children and adults worldwide to contact each other has led to reports of children being groomed both for child abuse and for extremism, as well as being exposed to inappropriate or violent content.
The Australian federal police has been warning since 2023 about extremists in Roblox, stating it was aware of instances where people have recreated or depicted historical scenarios including Nazi concentration camps, Chinese communist re-education camps for Muslims, and Islamic State-style conflict zones and propaganda.
Guardian Australia this week published a report that documented a week of virtual sexual harassment and violence in Roblox.
Why isn’t Roblox included in Australia's under-16s social media ban?
A platform that has the dominant purpose of gaming is excluded from the ban.
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said this week when announcing the list of platforms included in the ban from 10 December that Roblox’s inclusion was considered.
Inman Grant said eSafety had considered the game’s chat functionality and messaging.
“If the online gameplay is the significant or sole purpose, if that were taken away, would the kids still use that messaging functionality to chat? Probably not,” she said.
But Inman Grant said the list was dynamic, meaning she couldn’t rule out including Roblox in the future.
Will there be child safety measures and parental controls on Roblox?
Australian users will have age assurance measures applied by the end of this year, Roblox announced in September.
Under these changes, accounts for users under 16 will be private by default, and there will be tools to prevent adult users from contacting under-16s without parental consent.
Direct chat will also be switched off by default until the user has gone through age estimation.
Parental controls can disable chat for 13- to 15-year-old users, and voice chat will also not be allowed for the same age group – bringing up the restriction from the current one of users aged 12 and under.
Australia will be the first place these changes are rolled out, and Inman Grant this week said it was due to negotiations her office had been having with Roblox.
“Their primary user base are, you know, five- to 13-year-olds, but it’s a co-mingled platform. We know there are adults,” she said. “So we asked them to take other specific steps, including not allowing adults to contact children without specific parental consent and putting on privacy at the highest default.
“We’re using other tools in our arsenal to keep these other platforms safer … We’re trying to do other things through safety by design and our codes and standards to make sure they’re safer.”
