Roblox No Longer Allows Users Under 13 To Message Others Outside of Games 12
Roblox has introduced stricter safety measures for users under 13, including restricting direct messaging outside of games and experiences, regardless of parental permission. These updates aim to address criticism over child safety and regain trust, following a Bloomberg investigation highlighting predator risks on the platform. TechCrunch reports: During a press briefing, the company explained that users under the age of 13 will still be able to access in-game chats because Roblox believes that communication is fundamental to gameplay on the platform. Parents can change this setting if they wish. In addition, Roblox is age-gating certain experiences for users under 13. The new restrictions apply to games and experiences that are designed for socializing with people outside of a person's friends list, such as experiences that allow free-form writing or drawing.
"The reason that we've made this decision is that we've seen that some of both the content and the conduct in these experiences is more appropriate for older users and teens," said Dina Lamdany, Roblox's product lead for user settings and parental controls, during the press briefing. Although Roblox already offers some parental controls, it previously only allowed them to be managed from a child's account. Now, the company is introducing remote management, which allows parents to adjust controls and see their child's activity from their own devices. To do so, parents can link their Roblox account to their child's account after verifying themselves using an ID or credit card. Parents can now also see their child's average weekly screen time and set daily time limits. They can also see their child's Friends list.
"The reason that we've made this decision is that we've seen that some of both the content and the conduct in these experiences is more appropriate for older users and teens," said Dina Lamdany, Roblox's product lead for user settings and parental controls, during the press briefing. Although Roblox already offers some parental controls, it previously only allowed them to be managed from a child's account. Now, the company is introducing remote management, which allows parents to adjust controls and see their child's activity from their own devices. To do so, parents can link their Roblox account to their child's account after verifying themselves using an ID or credit card. Parents can now also see their child's average weekly screen time and set daily time limits. They can also see their child's Friends list.
Re:Censorship (Score:4, Informative)
That's actually legally correct. You don't get many citizenship rights until you're 18. You barely get internationally recognized human rights, and even then, usually in practice only if your parents step up and demand them for you. But it's not even legal for companies to collect data on children 13 and younger, which is probably what they're actually avoiding here, while virtue-signaling that it's something else.
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When you say legally correct, it depends on country and state laws. Ages vary - a lot of the Roblox policies depend on the user's age and country of origin, so you use the PolicyService:GetPolicyInfoForPlayerAsync method and look at the results if you want your game to enable functionality on a per-player basis. The table it returns tells you something about all the features of your game that must be unavailable to a player based on their location, age, and even parental controls. This functionality gets up
So Roblox intends to block minors... (Score:2, Insightful)
...under 13 to message others on email, text, chat rooms, forums, written mail correspondence, phone calls, walkie talkies, notes in class, sign language, face to face conversations, smoke signals, etc.
That's a pretty bold over-reach.
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You forgot to mention foot-taps in bathroom stalls and telegram.
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Where did you get that idea? They're just changing their code; they're not changing everyone's code. This only affects users of roblox, and only within the instance of that software.
If you think free speech can possibly be infringed by restrictions in a video game's player-to-player communications, then I predict you're one of those kind of people who thinks Twitter is a "town square" and the government should use force against private websites who have editorial agendas. i.e. you're a MAGA Communist.
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Spoiler alert! Dellussional parents stop reading now! All kids know how to enter an earlier date of birth online. Some may not even be able to do the math how old it makes them, but they still know to just scroll about a decade down from their actual date of birth.
So a 14 year can ...geez (Score:2)
Any parent who would... (Score:2)
Any parent who would let their pre-teen hang out in an inner city pool hall should feel very comfortable with their kids having unfettered access to communication platforms that put them in contact with anonymous individuals.
Any game/social media/comm platform that wants to get $$ from services provided to kids should be able to satisfy parents that there is no way anonymous individuals can chat them up. Letting kids play with their friends from their own neighborhood is risky enough; it provides a good t