Gaming site Roblox rolls out major changes in attempt to avoid Australia’s under-16s social media ban

Controversial gaming platform Roblox will restrict young users from key features as it seeks to avoid Australia’s impending under-16s social media ban.

While Roblox has so far been exempt from the age restrictions due to come into effect on December 10, is has begun asking young users to voluntarily undertake age verification when using its chat feature.

The Federal Government has so far included nine platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Kick and Reddit — in their world-first ban.

The onus will be on platforms to comply with the legislation to “detect and deactivate or remove” accounts from existing underage users or faces fines of up to $50 million.

Roblox will then make age checks mandatory in early December for users in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands before expanding it to all users globally in January.

Once a user is age verified under the plan, they will be placed into six age categories — under nine, nine to 12, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, 18 to 20, or aged over 21.

Users will then be able to chat with others in their age group and similar ones, but children and adults will be blocked from interacting. Those under nine will automatically have their chat function turned off.

After the chat guardrails are established, Roblox will roll out further age verification barriers in early 2026, including when sharing social media links and collaborating in “Roblox studio”, an integrated environment where users can create and publish games and experiences for the plaform.

Roblox has been subject to ongoing speculation, along with platforms Discord and Twitch, about whether it too will be included on the banned list.

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has warned that the list of platforms included in the ban was a “dynamic list”, which could be added to anytime if an app added social media-like features.

It comes after the government added YouTube to the ban in late July after initially exempting it. It then added Reddit and Kick in early November.

In a briefing to journalists on Tuesday ahead of announcing the tightened controls, Roblox executives said it was undertaking the actions to protect children and comply with Australian law.

The gaming site says privacy will be prioritised in their age verification process, which will be outsourced to third-party site Persona.

Users won’t have to solely rely on submitting ID to confirm their age. Instead, they’ll be able to undertake age checks using “facial age estimation technology”, which includes users turning their faces left and right in front of their camera.

“Every day, we work to provide over 150 million users with a safe, positive, age-appropriate experience on Roblox,” said chief safety officer Matt Kaufman.

“By requiring facial age checks to access chat features, we’re helping create an age-appropriate environment for every user, and we encourage the broader industry to adopt similar standards.”

He said Roblox has also vowed to delete the required data “immediately after processing”.

With three weeks to go, eSafety has prompted a raft of resources on its website and held dozens of live educational webinars for parents and teachers.

The ban has prompted interest abroad with Denmark the latest to announce that it would follow Australia’s reforms.

It comes after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hosted national leaders at an event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to share Australia’s efforts with interested countries.