Roblox will not allow children under 13 years of age to play, search or discover experiences without an age rating

Roblox has announced that users under 13 years of age will not be able to play, search or discover experiences that do not have a rating that certifies that it is age-appropriate content and they will not be able to enjoy certain interactive experiences.

The company is introducing a new type of account for children under 13, which will give parents or guardians a series of privileges to monitor their children’s activity on the platform and the time they spend on it.

This change will be complemented by the deployment of a series of settings established by default in these accounts, with the aim of making the platform safer for the little ones.

These accounts give privileges to parentswho must link them with those of their children to be able to supervise them from their own devices and minors, in turn, will need their parents’ permission to access certain chat features.

Roblox has now given more details about its new security policies in its developer forum, where it has pointed out two new changes in its regulations, such as prohibiting these people from playing, searching or discovering experiences without age ratings.

In this way, if a developer wants to allow a minor under 13 years of age to access their game, they will have to complete a questionnaire and verify that all the information about their experience meet platform requirements.

Creators, in turn, must ensure that all information in their titles – the thumbnail, title and description – is appropriate for all users, complying with the recommendations required by the ‘All ages’ classifications (video games that may contain occasional mild violence and/or unrealistic gore) or ‘PG 9+’ (which may include repeated mild violence, heavy but unrealistic gore, and/or mild scares).

Developers must complete the experience questionnaire – which will soon be integrated into the publishing process of each game – by December 3 of this year. After this date, experiences that are not properly rated will not be able to be played, searched, or discovered by users under 13 years of age.

On the other hand, the company has indicated that it is restricting experiences with “certain interactive features“, such as ‘online’ meetings (Social Hangouts) – games, clubs, spaces created for the purpose of communicating by text or voice chat, etc. – or the free creation of 2D users, which will only be available to those over 13 years.

This measure, which will implement starting November 18, It does not include role-playing games or real-life simulation experiences in which users take on a different role or are given objects to play with.

Roblox will also limit so-called free creations to those under 13 years of age. These are those that result from the use of tools that allow users to draw or write on two dimensions (2D) -write or draw on a whiteboard- and replicate those creations to other people on the platform without them going through a Roblox moderation filter.

On the contrary, it will not prohibit these users from creating creations derived from three-dimensional (3D) assets – creating short videos, outfits for players or houses with blocks – that have gone through the Roblox moderation filter, as has pointed out in the Questions and Answers section.