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.
The millions of reports made each year uniquely situate NCMEC to identify trends and create prevention resources to address the evolving needs of kids and teens online. On February 17, 2026, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr launched an investigation into Roblox following instances and reports of child exploitation. Uthmeier also sought communications to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and reports of abuse to and from Florida users among other things via the subpoena.
Report: How Dating App Chats Are Driving Users Away
She also requested that the game’s PG rating be reviewed again by the Australian Classification Board, where it was noted that the platform hosted games intended for adults. The system requires users to either upload an ID to verify their exact age or perform a facial scan via Persona to place a person into an estimated age group. On November 18, 2025, Roblox announced that all forms of in-game chat and experiences rated “18+” on the platform would be locked behind an age verification system. In October 2025, Roblox planned revenue changes in order to expand child safety and moderation which caused the stock of the company to fall by 15 percent, though the company stated they expect a rising third quarter capital after the changes are made.
Financial exploitation
And one cannot upsell content to players who have already left. Moderating images, voice, and video content in real time requires a different architecture than batch- or queue-based moderation systems. According to Apostolos Georgakis, our CTO at Besedo, real-time, AI-driven content moderation combined with strong policy enforcement is the robust solution online gaming desperately needs. 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.
Safer gaming is a cornerstone of the digital safety movement. Here’s how to achieve it
If the user’s age could not be determined with high confidence after a facial scan, the platform would ask for the ID of the user or their parent. By default, users under 9 were only allowed to access “minimal” and “mild” experiences, whereas “moderate” experiences would require parental consent. They had met on Roblox and had been friends for around six years, communicating through various social media platforms and meeting in person four or five times. The perpetrators in both cases were in close contact with each other and communicated through online communication. Online child exploitation groups which operate on the platform like 764 and CVLT are also known to hold neo-Nazi and other extremist ideologies.
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.
- More troubling, a significant portion are walking away entirely from games they once enjoyed.
- Shapak also pointed out that the platform had highly addictive elements marketed to minors, which could expose them to sexual or violent material at an early age and create certain dependencies to electronic devices.
- Each console and platform offers unique controls, so be sure to review options specific to the device your child uses.
- Players aren’t asking for censorship, they’re asking for safety.
- That is a huge chunk of the player population deliberately steering clear of specific games because of how players behave in those spaces.
- 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.
- Our survey revealed that nearly 78% of gamers have experienced some form of harassment online.
Watching or playing the game together lets you see firsthand if anything feels inappropriate or concerning and opens the door to meaningful discussions about online safety. While video games can be a great source of entertainment, creativity, and even learning, they also come with certain risks that parents should be aware of. May contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language. The first step in ensuring you, and your family, have a positive and safe experience when playing is understanding the tools available on your game platforms.
- First, ethically, it’s alarming that online games often have teen or even “Everyone” ratings – environments where children face such hostility.
- 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.
- Online child exploitation groups such as 764, CVLT, and other groups affiliated with The Com have been discovered operating on Roblox, something which has been acknowledged by Roblox themselves.
- The kinds of slurs, sexual comments, and hate imagery that proliferate in some games are absolutely not what most parents want their kids to witness or endure.
- In December 2025, access to Roblox was blocked in Russia due to it allegedly containing extremist material and “international LGBT propaganda”, with Roskomnadzor saying that the platform was “rife with inappropriate content that can negatively impact the spiritual and moral development of children”.
- Every unchecked bigoted rant or sexist attack might drive away dozens of other players, shrinking the total user pool and revenue potential in the long run.
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.
Understanding In-Game Tools.
Teens who pass the age test would be able to add anyone aged 13 through 17 as a trusted connection without restriction, though users over 18 years old would need to use a QR code or phone number to add verified teen users. In October 2020, the Roblox Corporation reported employing approximately 1,600 full-time employees dedicated to content moderation. In-game mechanics for self-expression such as user avatars, item decorations, and spray paint tools were also identified as being used to spread extremist and hateful imagery. One high-profile group in Roblox, called “The Senate and People of Rome”, outlawed “race-mixing, feminism” and homosexuality, while also requiring another player, who was Jewish, to wear a “Judea tunic or be arrested on sight”. Investigative journalism YouTube channel People Make Games accused the platform of “exploiting” younger game developers by promising them large amounts of money from creating games, only to apply high revenue cuts and leaving creators with little to no income. In April 2022, Truth in Advertising filed a complaint against Roblox with the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising, mainly failing to disclose when advertising is present, such as with advergames and brand ambassadors.
“GameSafe is a must-have for any parent with gaming kids.” Dating app users are frustrated with in-app messaging. We’re Besedo and we provide content moderation tools and services to companies all over the world. Healthy communities drive deeper engagement, session length, and, yes, monetization, while toxic communities stifle all of the above. “You need compute-efficient transformer models, smart latency management, and retraining pipelines that minimize false positives and negatives in an ever-changing context.”
The company’s actions were met with major backlash from many online communities who viewed Schlep’s actions as necessary for community policing. This has also prompted multiple Roblox-affiliated content creators of the Roblox Video Stars Program to leave the platform as protest. Roblox Corporation’s letter stated that the activities of Schlep and other vigilante streamers were a violation of the platform’s terms of service and created an unsafe environment for users. In August 2025, Roblox Corporation issued a cease-and-desist letter to Schlep, a YouTuber prominent for conducting sting operations against alleged online predators via the platform, which has resulted in multiple arrests.
Google Play
Of course, implementing this kind of system isn’t plug-and-play. “A safer user experience leads to more enjoyment, stronger communities, and ultimately, more engagement and revenue,” he adds. Apostolos explains that smarter workflows, automated and tiered by severity, allow platforms to respond faster and more fairly. AI can also adapt to evolving language, subcultures, and slang much better than rule-based systems.” However, words and isolated features aren’t enough if enforcement is inconsistent or a company’s stance isn’t communicated to the player base.
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.
Additionally, Roblox has been criticized for its use of microtransactions, advergames, and brand ambassadors, as well as for the alleged financial exploitation of child game developers. Some users have taken to online vigilantism to catch potential child predators; Roblox Corporation has faced significant controversy after taking legal action against some of these users. Child exploitation groups such as 764 and CVLT have operated on Roblox to groom children, and at least 30 people have been arrested since 2018 in the United States for abducting or sexually abusing children they had groomed on the platform.
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.
The platform is made to appeal to a family-friendly audience, and has been described as a massively multiplayer online game (MMO). The games featured on Roblox vary in genre, from role-playing games to ones centered around escaping prison, among others. Games can be created by any user through the platform’s game engine, Roblox Studio, and then be shared to and played by other players.
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.
All participants confirmed they are active players participating in online multiplayer games. Conversely, players are willing to spend more in games that feel safe – one analysis found gamers spend 54% more on titles they perceive as “non-toxic”. If platforms clearly enforce rules against cubet harassment, players will reward them with loyalty, more engagement, and increased spending.
