Roblox is launching a handful of new parental controls that can be used to limit who and what children interact with on the UGC platform.
Detailing its latest measures in a blog post, Roblox said three new tools will grant parents the ability to block specific experiences or people on their child’s friends list, while also letting them track which experiences have captured their attention.
The company said it wants to provide flexible tools for parents so it can accommodate their individual “comfort levels.”
“We know children develop on different timelines and parents have different comfort levels regarding how much time their kid spends online, where they spend it, and who they spend it with. In developing parental controls, we prioritize transparency and ease of use to make it as simple as possible for parents to implement them,” reads the blog post.
“It’s also important to note that, regardless of whether parents use these controls, we consider the safety of our youngest users paramount to the Roblox experience.”
The new feature set will give parents the power to report anyone on their child’s friends list if they believe they’re violating Roblox policies.
“Granular” controls for parents and caregivers
When it comes to blocking specific experiences, parents will be offered “granular” controls that can be used to review or change the content maturity level associated with their child’s account—which ultimately determines which experiences they can access.
“For example, they may want their child to have access to Moderate content in general, but not to a specific experience that appears in the Moderate category,” continues the blog post. “Experience-level blocking empowers parents to block any specific experiences that they don’t want their child to access.”
Screen time insights have also been bolstered so parents can view the 20 experiences that have consumed the majority of their child’s time.
The new tools have been introduced a few months after Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki suggested parents with safety concerns should simply avoid the platform.
Despite that rather blunt slice of advice, Roblox has been working to bolster its child safety measures in response to a perceived lack of protections for younger players.
Case in point: last year Bloomberg published an extensive report based on testimonies from 20 current and former Roblox employees who alleged the company was failing to curb predatory behavior.
By contrast, Roblox said it rolled out over 40 safety updates in 2024 alone and will continue to bolster its tools, policies, and systems to keep children safe.
