In September 2025, Núcleo Jornalismo launched an investigation into Roblox content aimed at children in Brazil with the support of academics and researchers from various universities in São Paulo. Users have been documented evading Roblox content and chat moderation to perform sexual content by taking activity offsite to other social media platforms, especially Discord. The European video game content rating system PEGI classifies the game as “parental guidance recommended”, while prior to September 2022 it classified the game as “suitable for 7 years and over”.
Moderation and safety updates
While Roblox is free-to-play, it features a virtual currency known as “Robux” that can be purchased with real-world money. We’re passionate about making sure it’s a super safe environment for kids to play and enjoy themselves. We watch for any act of targeting, or verbally attacking or intimidating your child. See all your child’s activity in one place. “GameSafe is a parent’s best friend in the digital age.”
In January 2026, Kazakh MP Unzila Shapak proposed that the Kazakh government take action regarding Roblox’s operations in the country, citing problems such as pedophilia and the presence of scammers requesting personal information from minors as being a problem. Subsequently, the General Directorate of Internal Affairs of the City of Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan issued a statement recommending that parents restrict minors’ access to the platform. Additionally, it was indicated that the platform was originally excluded from the original Online Safety Act that banned social media for minors, but following the reports, it was decided to implement protocols for platforms such as Roblox, to be applied from March 2026.
Women face severe challenges in online games
- He stated in July 2025 that Roblox could serve as an effective online dating platform and that it could help lonely people meet in real life.
- Knowing the ins and outs of the games your child plays gives you a clearer sense of the content, the people they’re interacting with, and potential risks.
- Ratings systems also give additional information on features, like in-game purchasing.
- The end goal isn’t to play nanny or ruin the fun – it’s to cultivate communities where all players can have fun without fear of harassment.
- What are the most important parental control settings for safe online gaming?
- According to the Anti-Defamation League’s 2023 report, 76% of adult gamers reported similar harassment experiences.
These gender differences are important because they show how targeted harassment can dramatically impact player retention and brand reputation. More troubling, a significant portion are walking away entirely from games they once enjoyed. Women experience notably higher rates of unwanted sexual messages (25%) compared to men (14%). Some allow you to receive notifications, while others offer message filters to block inappropriate content. Many platforms, like Discord and Roblox, have parental controls or notification settings for monitoring direct messages. Parental control settings can help you keep tabs on how long your child is gaming, set daily time limits, or even restrict internet access when gaming time is over.
A common criticism in regard to child safety on Roblox is the proliferation of games that depict sex clubs (usually termed “condo games” or “scented cons”) that facilitate virtual sexual roleplay between users and how easily accessible they are to underage players. In September 2025, Algerian authorities banned the game, citing that the company did not have sufficient tools and capacity to protect children, where the vast majority of Algerian users were under the age of 10 and were being exposed to sexual harassment and inappropriate content on the platform. The ESRB’s primary mission is to help parents make informed decisions about the video games and apps their children play. Video game rating systems are designed to help players and parents make informed decisions about the games they choose for themselves or their children. While some communities place age limits to prevent users from joining, applications obtained by Rolling Stone for players to “work” in adjacent sexual games on the platform showed that the large majority of users in these communities were under 15. The appropriate age for online gaming varies by child and game content, but generally, most experts suggest waiting until around age 7-8 for limited, supervised online play.
Players demand action: Moderation is a must
Roblox’s business model has been heavily criticized, with the platform being accused of featuring exploitative practices that target children; Professor Jane Juffer at Cornell University accused Roblox of encouraging consumerism in children. American television journalist Chris Hansen, known for the television show To Catch a Predator, said in August 2025 that he was producing a documentary film about the state of child safety on the Roblox platform, and that he had interviewed law enforcement, abuse victims, and Schlep for the project. Court documents show that the lawsuit was settled after Simon agreed to pay the Roblox Corporation $150,000 and a permanent ban from the game, notably not establishing a legal precedent for IP bans from the platform.
Roblox developers are required to fill out a questionnaire which will determine the game’s maturity rating, ranging from “minimal” to “restricted”, which are only available to users who have verified they are at least 17 years old through government-issued ID. According to a 2022 report by The Weekend Australian, “dozens” of forums exist to show Roblox players how to make Nazi-inspired content without being banned, such as rearranging the colors of the Nazi flag and altering the Swastika. After Roblox requested the channel to take down the video, People Make Games released several more accusations towards Roblox, focused on an alleged lack of oversight of developers and a method for people to address developer abuse, leading to child developers being exploited for labor on third-party platforms. Some found that the platform made it very easy to purchase microtransactions, leading to numerous instances where children have spent large sums of money on the platform without parents’ knowledge.
Núcleo journalists claimed that much of the platform is supported by microtransactions and uses methods to make minors addicted to online purchases to a certain extent, which can be used to abuse them. In March 2025, Roblox CEO David Baszucki said in response to concerns over child safety, “if you’re not comfortable, don’t let your kids be on Roblox”. Sexual exploitation of minors on Roblox has been used to justify and promote the short-selling of Roblox Corporation’s stock by organizations such as The Bear Cave (which compiled a list of 16 arrests and indictments since 2020 among other instances of sexual abuse) and the investment firm Hindenburg Research. Roblox refused action towards the game, as they did not see it as a safety concern; Sonic’s owner Sega later took the game down via a copyright infringement notice after being notified. On December 13, 2021, the YouTube channel People Make Games released a video featuring an interview with an anonymous individual who maintained to be a victim of sexting with a 24-year-old Roblox game developer, who created the Sonic the Hedgehog fangame Sonic Eclipse Online, when she was 12. It cited the fact that the game hosts millions of instances of user-generated content which makes the platform difficult to classify as a whole.
At Electronic Arts, we want to empower our players and parents to make informed decisions about gameplay.
Hindenburg Research cited a similar game, Public Bathroom Simulator Vibe, as one of the reasons Roblox is an “X-rated pedophile hellscape”. He stated in July 2025 that Roblox could serve as an effective online dating platform and that it could help lonely people meet in real life. Roblox has rejected claims made by these organizations, alleging that they were highlighting rare instances and that their promotion only served to further an agenda of causing others to sell stock. The developer would later be sentenced to 15 years in prison for paying an Uber driver to drive a 15-year-old child from Indiana to his home state of New Jersey for sex. Although his account was terminated, he transferred the game to a friend’s account and continued to make money from the game.
- Some found that the platform made it very easy to purchase microtransactions, leading to numerous instances where children have spent large sums of money on the platform without parents’ knowledge.
- The law firm stated it was “investigating hundreds of similar cases” and intended to file more lawsuits in the subsequent months.
- Los Angeles County filed a lawsuit against Roblox two days later, claiming the platform “makes children easy prey for pedophiles” and “fails to implement reasonable and readily available safety measures”.
- In August 2025, the Defensoría del Pueblo de la Provincia de Catamarca informed parents in the Argentine province that the platform’s security was insufficient to protect minors and that in recent years cases of sexual harassment of minors were becoming more frequent in the province thanks to Roblox.
- No matter how great the gameplay is, if the community is known for harassment, many potential players will simply stay away.
- If there is a silver lining in all this, it’s that gamers themselves overwhelmingly want change.
The law firm stated it was “investigating hundreds of similar cases” and intended to file more lawsuits in the subsequent months. Within the same month, Venezuelan authorities noted that Roblox was being used by local pedophile networks to extort minors. Between 2023 and 2024, the Public Ministry of Labor (Ministério Público do Trabalho) of Sao Paulo launched an investigation into monetization on the platform and how the American company was taking advantage of young developers in Brazil, where the company did not provide them with proper payment for their work. In addition, the Spanish Civil Guard also issued a statement saying that reports of sex offenders using Roblox to extort minors were becoming much more frequent in Spain, where they recorded cases of several minors in Murcia who had begun to interact and maintain direct contact with pedophiles in southern Spain. In 2025, the Committee for Children’s Rights Protection of the Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan issued a statement alerting parents to the presence of pedophiles on the platform. Developers also claimed that the verification system could not be trusted in the sense of how they may collect and store users’ faces.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, some Roblox users have become “vigilante gamers” in response cubet to Roblox’s perceived poor moderation and failure to protect children. In a Twitter thread reported on by Polygon, a woman stated that when she was investigating the Roblox games that her five-year-old child was playing, she joined a game named Public Bathroom Simulator. While not explicitly sexual, some games have been reported to feature suggestive environments that facilitate sexual or fetishistic roleplay such as vore or feet fetishes. Roblox is an online game platform and game creation system developed and managed by Roblox Corporation, built around user-generated content and games, officially referred to as “experiences”.
May contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language. Game ratings and content descriptors can vary by country. Ratings systems also give additional information on features, like in-game purchasing. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this Web site (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided). Download presentations, tip sheets, lesson plans, and other safety resources.
As of August 2025update, the corporation is facing several lawsuits in the United States for alleged failures to protect children. Poki Kids is an online playground specially created for young players. We guard against gamers attempting to move the conversation away from the protected gaming platform to discord or other messaging apps. “If users have a bad experience, whether it’s harassment in a game, scams on a marketplace, or hate speech on a social platform, retention becomes nearly impossible.
Every child is different, so consider their maturity and understanding of online safety when making this decision. How can I monitor my child’s messages in gaming chats? What are the most important parental control settings for safe online gaming? Without limits, gaming can become all-consuming, especially for children prone to hyper-focus. If your child uses voice chat, encourage them to play using speakers rather than headphones. Encourage your child to use unique, anonymous usernames and avoid using the same one across multiple platforms to prevent linking their identity across different services.
From content filters to limiting chat options, parental controls give you more oversight on who your child can communicate with and what they can play. Learn more about our Positive Play Charter and how to report players. FC Playtime was designed to help FC players understand and control how they play. NetSmartz is NCMEC’s online safety education program. But there’s still more to do—join us in protecting children and supporting our mission. On September 15, 2025, Oklahoma attorney general Gentner Drummond announced that he was seeking outside law firms to investigate Roblox over alleged child exploitation and safety failures.
In 2024, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that, since 2018, at least 24 people had been arrested in the United States on charges of abducting or sexually abusing children they had groomed on Roblox. According to the company in 2020, the monthly player base included half of all American children under the age of 16. A December 2017 study found that children ages 5 to 9 primarily spend their time playing Roblox over all other activities when using a PC. Additionally, in 2025, social hangout games featuring private locations such as bedrooms and bathrooms were restricted to users aged 17 and above. Around 40% of Roblox players are under 13 years old, and Roblox Corporation stated in 2020 that half of all American children used the platform. Customize alert settings for peace of mind and full control over your child’s online gaming safety.
You can also choose to watch the video on YouTube. The content could contain damaging software (such as spyware or viruses) or it might be offensive. If you want to meet someone IRL that you’ve been talking to online, always let a friend, parent or guardian know.
The same study also took notice of the genre of “hood games”, in which players roleplay as gangsters in low-class neighborhoods, for promoting prejudice and stereotypes against African Americans and those of lower socioeconomic status. However, these restrictions did not apply to advergames, leading to further criticism by Truth in Advertising and children’s digital rights organization 5Rights. The woman reported that her character slipped on a puddle and was stuck on the ground, at which point several other players roleplayed sexually assaulting her. One controversial invitee was “TheOfficiaITeddy” who, according to IGN, was involved in making games that “featured romantic, dating, and even sex-themed content” with his most popular game having hundreds of millions of plays. Bloomberg Businessweek reported the existence of forums on the dark web sharing tips on how to encourage children to contact predators offsite without detection by chat filters through the use of intentional typos and emojis.
More than 90% of children over the age of 2 play video games, and three-quarters of American households own a video game console, according to the National Institutes of Health. We know it’s important to understand and be comfortable with the video games you and your children are playing. That same month, a different class action lawsuit was filed by parents against Roblox for false advertising, exposing children to sexual content, and enabling children to spend large amounts of their parents’ money on Robux. El Haïry also emphasized that the conversation about protecting children online should also include video games and not just social media in general.
