Roblox is intensifying its safety measures, but some argue it might be a case of too little, too late.
The gaming powerhouse based in California revealed plans on Monday to implement new age-specific accounts beginning in June. This move will categorize younger players into more controlled groups, responding to increasing concerns about child safety on the platform.
Children aged 5 to 8 will be assigned “Roblox Kids” accounts, which will entirely block chat features and impose strict limitations on accessible games. Meanwhile, users aged 9 to 15 will transition to “Roblox Select” accounts, where chat capabilities remain restricted and the content is moderated.
According to Roblox, these changes aim to empower parents with greater oversight and minimize potentially dangerous interactions between children and strangers. However, this initiative emerges amidst legal actions accusing the platform of jeopardizing children’s safety.
As reported by The California Post, a particularly alarming lawsuit details a young girl’s descent into suicidal ideation and severe depression, which allegedly began after she became engrossed in Roblox at the age of 7.
The court documents outline a troubling scenario, asserting that the child was subjected to distressing content from which she found no escape.
“These harms L.L. didn’t seek out or want. They were harms L.L. became unable to avoid.”
The case is part of a sweeping legal battle involving more than 20 plaintiffs across 14 states, targeting tech giants including Meta, Google and ByteDance — with claims that addictive platforms are fueling a mental health crisis among kids.
Roblox, one of the most widely used platforms among teens, “failed to take reasonable steps to protect the children it targeted,” the lawsuit says.
The company is also facing a separate civil suit from Los Angeles County, which alleges the platform created a “largely unsupervised online world” where adults and minors can interact with little oversight.
Roblox has pushed back, insisting safety has always been a priority.
“Roblox is built with safety at its core, and we continue to evolve and strengthen our protections every day,” a spokesperson told NBC News. “We have advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications, and users cannot send or receive images via chat, avoiding one of the most prevalent opportunities for misuse seen elsewhere online.”
Still, the timing of the new rules is raising eyebrows.
With more than 144 million daily users and billions of hours logged, critics argue the platform had years to implement tougher protections — and is only acting now under legal and public pressure.
