Australia says Roblox hasn’t fixed its child predator problem

Roblox is promising more changes to its child safety features following testing from Australia’s online safety regulator, eSafety.

eSafety has been looking into concerns that the company hasn’t been in compliance with Australia’s Online Safety Act, including “allegedly failing to have sufficient measures in place to prevent contact between adults and children under 16.” While Roblox has put some new safety measures in place, eSafety’s testing this year found that the platform “continued to put children at risk, including allowing contact between children and adult strangers.”

eSafety’s testing found that:

adults could send connection requests to young Australian children without parental or carer consent;

children and adults could view and respond to one another’s posts on forums outside game environments without parental or carer consent;

children’s connections were visible to anyone on the Roblox platform;

children’s profiles and biographies, including account names, number and names of connections, avatar images, and non-sensitive biographical information such as their interests were visible to anyone on the Roblox platform, with no option to restrict the visibility of this information.

Roblox believes it meets its Online Safety Act obligations, according to eSafety. But the company will be adding further safety measures that include:

preventing adults from contacting unknown children without parental consent

strengthening the account settings of children’s accounts so they are private by default

accessible reporting mechanisms that notify users of complaint outcomes

engaging an independent third-party auditor to assess the effectiveness of its safety measures, including the deployment of its age-estimation measures.

”This undertaking follows constructive dialogue with eSafety, Australia’s online safety regulator, and reflects our commitment to working with regulators and policymakers around the world to help keep kids safe online,” Nicky Jackson Colaço, Roblox’s global head of public policy, says in a statement. “Our recent rollout of industry leading safety features on Roblox, including Roblox Kids and Select accounts tailored specifically for users under 16, is one of many examples of this commitment.”

In the US, Roblox is under investigation by a Senate subcommittee and has been sued by multiple states over alleged child safety issues, though it has settled some state lawsuits.

Update, August 20th: Added Roblox statement.