SAN ANTONIO – Roblox, a popular social gaming platform containing millions of user-created games, has reported around 40% of its 84 million users are under 13 years old. Many families play together and love the app, but other parents are sounding an alarm, saying it has become a hotspot for child predators.
“In the last year we have filed about 15 cases across the country in federal and state court, where a child has been identified, targeted and groomed on the Roblox platform,” attorney Alexandra Walsh said.
Walsh said her clients’ kids have either been sexually exploited or even physically assaulted, like a girl in Galveston.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Roblox in early November for “flagrantly ignoring state and federal online safety laws while deceiving parents about the dangers of its platform.”
KSAT reported a story back in February about new parental controls built into Roblox to make it safer for young users.
Parents were encouraged to go on Roblox, open their own account with their own avatar and link their account to their kid’s account.
“They’ll have this whole suite of parental controls, so things like screen time and spend limits and friend controls, ‘Who can your kids talk to on Roblox? What kinds of games can they play?’” said Roblox Senior Director of Product Policy Eliza Jacobs.
Jacobs said there are blanket default settings for kids under 13 where direct chat is disabled and they cannot respond in public chats. Children under 13 also don’t have access to certain games.
Parents can go into their child’s account and add more restrictions on top of the default setting.
When asked if she thinks that was enough, Walsh said, “no, absolutely not.”
“Children continue to be preyed upon on this platform. A 47-year-old pedophile can come onto Roblox, create an account, pretend to be a child and go after innocent and unsuspecting kids,” Walsh said.
Last week, Roblox rolled out a new age-verification tool. Starting in early January, users in the U.S. who would like to access chat features will need to go through an age-estimation process. The global rollout for Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands will happen before that.
“Requiring absolutely everybody on the platform to use facial age estimation in order to access communications, that’s a first in the industry,” Jacobs said.
To chat with others on the app, users will either have to submit a government ID or let an AI program scan their face and estimate their age.
“Turn your head from side to side to show that you’re really live and in front of the camera. The model will estimate your age and then we’ll get rid of that data immediately,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs said the age reflected determines who users are allowed to chat with.
“You think of like, middle schoolers can talk to middle schoolers, elementary schoolers can talk to elementary schoolers. Who would they be on the playground with? This means that kids will not be able to talk to adults that they don’t know,” Jacobs said.
In response to users who want to play with family members of different ages, Roblox said, “We recognize the importance of family members playing, learning, and communicating directly with their child on Roblox. Through Trusted Connections, age-checked users 13 or older can chat freely with people they know. We’ll soon roll out dedicated solutions for direct chat between parents and children younger than 13 or between siblings in different age groups.”
“It’s too little and it is far too late,” Walsh said. “Where were these protections two, three, four years ago when the children who I represent and otherwise are speaking out about this when they were being hurt?”
Walsh and her clients believe predators will use other AI programs to trick the age verification technology.
When asked what she thinks the technological answer is, Walsh said, “There are technologies which could be used to alert a parent anytime their child is being approached by someone else. Prevent that interaction until the parent is notified and approves it.”
Jacobs acknowledged the lawsuits that have been filed against Roblox.
“Even one incident like that is one too many and we take it incredibly seriously,” Jacobs said. “That’s why we’re constantly innovating on our technology and on our safety systems. We have a large trust and safety team, thousands of people on the team that are working day and night to prevent that kind of harm on the platform.”
Parents who do allow their kids on Roblox are encouraged to set up their own account, link it to their kids, set parental controls and make sure age is set correctly. Parents can override that.
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