Roblox is to become the first major gaming platform where facial age verification will be mandatory to access any chat features. In 2024, the platform averaged over 80 million players a day, approximately 40% of whom are under 13 years of age. The news was announced by the company’s chief safety officer, Matt Kaufman, who claimed in a press briefing that the technology is “pretty accurate” and can estimate the age of users between five and 25, apparently with an accuracy “within one to two years.”
Roblox says it is establishing what it believes will become “a new industry standard”, and one of the key elements is limiting communications between child and adult users. The feature is now live, though voluntary, with the requirement for either “Facial Age Estimation” or ID verification becoming mandatory worldwide from December 2025 to January 2026. Users who do not wish to use chat features do not have to complete an age check.
“Once the age check is complete, users will only be allowed to chat with others in similar age groups, unless they become Trusted Connections with people they know,” says the Roblox announcement. Any images or video used for the age checks are processed and then deleted.
A key element is how the tech will put users in age groups. Chat within experiences will be turned off by default for users under nine (parents can still choose to enable it), and Roblox says in consultation with child development experts it will implement “common-sense limits on who can chat together.”
A Dragon Ball Z inspired avatar from Anime Eternal, a Roblox brawler. (Image credit: New ProjectR)
In practice this means assigning users to an age range within which they’re able to chat to each other: at launch these ranges are: Under 9, 9-12, 13-15, 16-17, 18-20, and 21+. There is some degree of wooliness here inasmuch as users will be “able to chat with those in their own age group and similar age groups, as appropriate”, with the following examples given:
*Elisa (estimated age 12): Elisa has access to chat with users aged 15 or younger in Experience chat. All users 16 or older are prevented from initiating or engaging in chat with her.*Marcus (estimated age 18): Marcus has access to chat with users aged 16 or older and could add a younger sibling as a Trusted Connection, as long as they are 13 or older.
In addition, Roblox has a “Trusted Connection” feature to enable family members to play together, whether that’s siblings with a significant age gap or parents.
The age checks join a now-considerable suite of safety features for communication on the platform, with Roblox having faced considerable criticism over the years for allowing minors to access inappropriate content and chat with adults. The company is currently being sued by three US states over child safety concerns while, back in March, CEO Dave Baszucki adopted the innovative strategy of putting it on parents: “If you’re not comfortable, don’t let your kids be on Roblox.”
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