Roblox to ban children from talking to adult strangers after series of lawsuits | Roblox

Online gaming platform Roblox will begin banning children from talking to adult strangers and older teens from next month as it faces new lawsuits alleging it was exploited by predators to groom children as young as seven.

Roblox has reached 150 million daily players, including hit games like Grow a Garden and Steal a Brainrot, but has been hit by legal claims alleging that the system’s design made “children easy prey for pedophiles.”

Starting next month, it will start enforcing facial age estimation to allow kids to chat with strangers only if they’re in their broad age range.

Roblox said it will be the first online gaming or communication platform to require age verification to communicate. Similar checks were introduced on users of pornographic websites in the UK this summer under measures in the Internet Safety Act to prevent under-18s from seeing explicit content.

Roblox compared its new system to school groups such as elementary, middle, and high schools. It will be introduced first in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, where children will be banned from chatting with adults they don’t know in real life from next month, and in the rest of the world in early January.

Users will be divided into the following groups: under nine, nine to 12, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, 18 to 20, or 21 and over. Kids will only be able to chat with others in their age group and the like. For example, a child estimated to be 12 years old will only be able to chat with people under 16 years old. Roblox said photos and videos used in verification processes will not be stored.

“We see it as a way for our users to have more trust in other people they’re talking to in these games,” said Matt Kaufman, chief safety officer at Roblox. “So we see it as a real opportunity to build trust in the platform and build trust among our users.”

This comes amid allegations from lawyers for the families who allege “systematic predation of minors” on Roblox. “The main allegations are of systematic abuse of minors,” said Matt Dolman, a Florida attorney who has filed 28 lawsuits against the company, which has thrived during the pandemic and continues to grow.

One of his most recent cases in US District Court for Nevada came from the family of a 13-year-old girl who alleges that Roblox “recklessly and deceptively” operated its business “in a manner that resulted in the sexual exploitation of the plaintiff.”

The girl, an avid Roblox user from Washoe County, Nevada, was allegedly targeted by a “dangerous child predator” who posed as a child, built a false romantic relationship and manipulated the child into giving him her cell phone number, to which he sent video messages. He then forced her to send him explicit photos and videos.

The prosecution alleges that “it was [Roblox] No steps are taken to screen users before allowing them to access the applications [the girl] “She wouldn’t have been exposed to the plethora of predators trolling the platform,” and she wouldn’t have been harmed if her age and identity had been verified.

Two other cases were filed in U.S. District Court in recent days in the Northern District of California, involving a seven-year-old girl in Philadelphia and a 12-year-old boy in Texas who were allegedly set up by predators on Roblox to send explicit photos of themselves.

A Roblox spokesperson said it was “deeply troubled by any incident that puts any user at risk” and that we “prioritize the safety of our community.”

“That’s why our policies are intentionally stricter than those on many other platforms,” they said. “We limit chat to younger users, don’t allow user-to-user photo sharing, and have filters designed to prevent personal information from being shared.

“We also recognize that no system is perfect which is why we are constantly improving our security tools and platform limitations to ensure parents can trust us to help keep their children safe online, having launched 145 new initiatives this year alone.”

“It’s not enough for one platform to have high standards for safety,” Kaufman said. “We really hope that the rest of the industry will follow suit with some of the things we’re doing, to raise the levels of protection for kids and teens online everywhere.”

“It is time for toy companies to put their responsibilities to children at the center of their services,” said Beban Kidron, founder of the UK’s 5Rights Foundation, which campaigns for children’s digital rights.

“Roblox’s ad claims that what they are offering will set best practices for the sector – a bold assertion from a company that has been slow to address predatory behavior and has allowed strangers to adults and older children to easily reach millions of younger users. I hope they are right.”