Roblox Will Estimate Users' Ages to Separate Child, Teen and Adult Experiences
Online game Roblox will use age-estimation technology to confirm users' ages and filter what content is available to children, teens and adults, the company announced Thursday. In addition, the developer will provide more privacy tools, including expanded parental controls for teen accounts.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Privacy Daily provides accurate coverage of newsworthy developments in data protection legislation, regulation, litigation, and enforcement for privacy professionals responsible for ensuring effective organizational data privacy compliance.
Users between 13 and 17 "confirm their age using a video selfie, which is analyzed against a large, diverse dataset to estimate their age," said Roblox. After that, they are able to add "Trusted Connections," which are limited to users in that age range, or an adult they know in real life, which must be added through a QR code or imported phone contact.
Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said, "We believe that unfiltered chat should only be made available to users who have been age-checked, which is why we’re using new Age Estimation tools to unlock access to Trusted Connections for those 13 and over."
Additionally, Roblox is providing teens with tools like online status controls, a do-not-disturb mode and screen-time controls, it said. Parents can also now link their accounts to their teen's account to monitor who their child is talking to and how long they are playing.
"Looking ahead, we envision using Age Estimation platform-wide to support user access to age-appropriate features and content," Roblox said in a related post Thursday. "Users always have a choice: Age Estimation is optional, and those over 13 can still verify with an ID and, in the future, verified parental consent."
Roblox has faced regulatory scrutiny. In April, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) issued a subpoena for information about how the online game markets to children, moderates chat rooms and sets age-verification requirements, as well as how it collects and processes data of child users (see 2504160045).