Roblox is currently one of the biggest online gaming platforms for kids in the world, with 79.5 million daily users — 58% of whom are under 16. Many parents and guardians believe that Roblox is a more secure alternative to other platforms that are seen as increasingly dangerous for kids. But is this digital world really safe for kids to use?

The Roblox platform allows anyone to join anonymously, build their own games, and interact in text and audio chats. This anonymity can protect kids’ identities, but it can also obscure the presence of predators. An incredibly thorough and sobering report from Hindenburg Research described the resulting dynamic as “a pedophile hellscape for kids.”

What are the specific risks for children on Roblox, and how can we combat those dangers?

Predators using the platform

Those are real texts sent from a major Roblox influencer to a 12-year-old girl, as reported by Bloomberg.

This particular predator is behind bars, but countless others are logging onto Roblox every day — many of them posing as children themselves or even operating sophisticated systems where they enlist children to farm Robux for them (generating in-game currency). Once an adult has joined the platform and connected with a minor, it becomes easy for them to coerce the child into recording explicit content or even meeting in person.

There has been a seemingly endless grim list of resulting stories:

A 10-year-old girl was forced into creating CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) by an older man on Roblox.

One 9-year-old said she felt “sick to her stomach” when she thought about the explicit messages she’d received. 

Young boys like James often get talked into connecting with predators on additional apps like Kik, Telegram, or Discord.

Despite repeated reports, Roblox was slow to take any action to support a 12-year-old who received graphic threats of assault.

In some cases, the targeted children are only 8 years old.

Roblox has reporting features, but as in the case mentioned above, the platform is very slow to act. Their internal procedures are inadequate to the sheer volume of harm that happens on their platform. As of 2022, their moderation guide did not even have a policy in place for grooming. Roblox employees themselves have expressed deep misgivings about how effective the security measures are.

Exposure to explicit content

Because literally anyone can build a game on Roblox, the content can be incredibly difficult to monitor. There are an estimated 40 million games currently hosted on Roblox. Violent and sexually explicit content in this overwhelming amount of games largely remains unchallenged and unchecked. For example, in 2024, about 600 explicit games discovered were linked to depictions of alleged sex trafficker Sean “Diddy” Combs’ activities.

Even when the games themselves do not contain explicit content, unsolicited graphic material can be messaged to children. Sometimes, this content doesn’t even come from predators: the platform is overrun by bots, a side effect of how easy it is to register.

Identifying information

In general, Roblox maintains a high level of anonymity. Avatars are colorful, computer-generated characters. Usernames are never a player’s real name.

But the platform does have to collect some information, which will always pose a level of risk. In order to function, the game stores:

• Username and birthday
• Biometric data from a face-scanning tool
• The user’s IP address and approximate location

Roblox does maintain privacy around those details. However, they may share them with the occasional third party. And even if the game itself doesn’t require identifying details, kids might share some of that information (real name, the city they live in, their school) with a predator.

Restrictions for Underage Accounts on Roblox

“Roblox’s vision is to connect billions of people through shared experiences in the Metaverse. Safety and civility are foundational to this vision and creating a platform where everyone feels welcome,” Roblox states in their own safety policy. “That’s why we’ve always made it a key priority to ensure our community members can connect, create, and come together in a space that is welcoming, safe, inclusive, and respectful. We’ve spent over a decade building a stringent safety system and policies that we are proud of and that we are continuously evolving as our community grows.”

Although that is the stated goal, clearly it has not always been implemented. However, some progress has been made. Because the outcry against Roblox’s dangers has been so consistent, the gaming giant finally made a significant security update in late 2024. Now, kids under 13 are not able to chat with anyone except for other players within the same minigame or experience. More robust parental controls also allow caregivers to remotely access a child’s account to monitor their activity. 

Parental Controls on Roblox

Parents can also set up screen time limits and mark which categories of content their children can see: minimal, mild, moderate, and restricted. The most graphic content is only accessible to players who verify that they are over 17 using a government-issued ID.

Unfortunately, these innovations are only effective as far as they are enforced. Parental controls only work if a kid signing up for Roblox tells their parents, is honest about their age when joining the platform, and allows a trusted adult to connect accounts. Although limiting the chat feature to in-game conversations is valuable, grooming can certainly still happen in that setting— or be initiated there and then moved to another platform. The reality of near-unlimited adult access to kids remains.

Remember the texts we showed you at the start of the article? The predator who sent them directly told Bloomberg: “It’s very easy to make an account… it’s very easy to play a game… and it’s very easy for an adult to talk to a young person.”

Even with content filters, efficacy depends on creators honestly categorizing their games. Because Roblox is insufficiently moderated, it’s plausible that content that should be restricted to 17 and older is still showing up in “moderate” or “mild” categories.

“Don’t allow the fact that you have parental controls set give you a false sense of security,” advises Bark, a digital safety expert. “Like many other platforms for kids, Roblox still contains risks — even with parental controls in place. Stay diligent and spend time watching your child play!”

An easy way to practice this diligence is by turning your child’s account to “Restricted” mode, which limits who they can add as friends. Familiarize yourself with all of the security features available, and check back often to see if changes have been made. Make sure you know how and when to help your child block a suspicious account.

You can also become an advocate for change. Call Roblox directly at 888-858-2569 or email info@roblox.com with your requests for more stringent security. The urging of ordinary people, including parents who sued Roblox, led to the updates we saw in 2024.

If you’re not sure what to ask Roblox for, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation has some ideas. They have placed Roblox on their Dirty Dozen list for the past two years, a list that calls out the companies most likely to enable sexual exploitation. Here are their recommendations for Roblox:

• Set underage accounts to the highest safety settings by default
• Disable direct messaging between children and adults with whom they are not friends
• Expand caregiver tools to help parents protect their children while using Roblox; require parental permission for children 12 and under to use the platform
• Implement age verification measures to restrict adult users from lying about their age
• Increase prevention and moderation measures to block and remove all inappropriate content. At a minimum, do not allow minors to access such games.

Even if you reach out to let Roblox know that you’d like to see these changes made, the reality is that they may be slow. In the meantime, in addition to careful use of security tools, the best way you can make Roblox safer is by having a strong relationship with the kids in your care. If your child knows that they can talk to you about anything, then you’re more likely to be able to collaborate with them on the security features. They’ll also come to you when they encounter something confusing or scary.

Don’t just talk about Roblox and safety with your kid — join them in it. Play games with them. Ask about friends you see them chatting with. Approach with an angle of curiosity, not fear. This will help your child feel supported rather than restricted or judged.

All images in this article were generated using Adobe Firefly AI.