Games have entertained children and adults alike since their inception, but some are themed and geared towards a younger audience. However, with recent controversies surrounding Roblox, the gaming platform that claims to have the largest player base in the world, the question about how it protects its younger audience is on the minds of every parent whose children interact with it.
To answer that vital question, we’ll dive right into the facts and explain what privacy filters are available, how the parental controls work, and details about the platform’s content maturity labels. In addition, we’ll share how to report any activity or content you are concerned about, whether it’s related to cyberbullying, your kids being scammed out of Robux, or any criminal activity. We have a Roblox beginner’s guide and list of the best Roblox games so you can judge for yourself whether it’s safe enough for your little one to play.
This article also highlights a Bloomberg Report that focuses on how predators use Roblox to lure children, as well as the official response from Roblox Corp’s CEO, and the controversies the company has found itself in during the years since it was published. Reader discretion is advised.
Is Roblox safe for your child to play?
The platform is far safer for its young audience now compared to just a few years ago, thanks to the implementation of improved parental controls, the restriction of direct messaging and “hangout” experiences for players under the age of 13, and more power given to moderation staff to stamp out any illegal activity on the platform. Roblox Corp. is also investing in AI technology to help keep kids safe. It also has a dedicated safety section on its website for parents to read.
That said, there are lingering issues regarding child safety that still plague the Roblox platform. Thousands of cases of grooming activity in its games are being reported to the authorities. While cyberbullying within the game’s chat tool is heavily moderated against, there aren’t enough safeguards in place to combat Robux scams, particularly those purchases made within experiences.
The bottom line, really, is that compared to online games like the Splatoon series from Nintendo, where any interaction is limited to set phrases and emotes, Roblox is relatively lax. If you don’t want your child potentially interacting with others or potentially falling victim to scams or bullying, then Roblox likely isn’t safe for your little one.
One top tip is to try out these experiences for yourself for a few minutes before making a decision, keeping an eye out for anything that may negatively impact your child’s enjoyment or safety, before briefing your child on what you found. Compared to traditional gaming experiences, it can be hard to keep an eye on whether your kids are staying safe, so it may be easier just not to allow them to play.
How to set up Roblox parental controls
The first thing you need to do to set up parental controls on Roblox is to create your account. You can find out how to do so in our Roblox beginner’s guide. Once that’s done, follow these steps:
- Sign in to your child’s Roblox account on your PC or mobile device. You’ll need to use a government-issued ID or credit card to verify your age.
- Click the cog at the top right corner of the main screen to show the Settings on PC. For mobile, tap More, then tap the gear icon to access the Settings menu.
- Click or tap Parental Controls and select Add Parent.
- Enter your email address to link the account to your own.
From here, going into the Parental Controls will allow you to manage what your child sees. For example, you can use the Content Maturity option to toggle the level of maturity rating for your child. Note that this is based on the experience itself, not any interactions your child may have with other players. The content maturity labels are:
- Minimal – these experiences are the lowest rating and may contain occasional mild violence, occasional mild fear, and/or light, unrealistic blood.
- Mild – may contain repeated mild violence, mild crude humor, mild repeated fear, and/or heavy, unrealistic blood.
- Moderate – may contain moderate violence, moderate crude humor, moderate repeated fear, light realistic blood, and what Roblox describes as “unplayable gambling content”. This means that there is no real-world exchange to play the gambling content (or gachas, as most of these are), so no Robux is spent on it.
- Restricted – the highest rating. Experiences here contain strong violence, heavy realistic blood, moderate crude humor, romantic themes, moderate fear, strong language, and depictions of alcohol. This rating also includes the unplayable gambling content label. These experiences are only available to users who have been age verified as 17+.
You can also block certain experiences if you discover an issue, manage their screen time, toggle whether they can chat with others, manage private servers and users they’re connected to, and put a spending cap on Robux spent or subscriptions to experiences.
Bloomberg Report on Child Safety in Roblox
A 2024 Bloomberg report exposed a widespread pedophile problem that had been suspected by many for a long time. It begins with an example of a developer who used his game to persuade his young fans to become stalwart defenders of his “predatory tirades”. The offending developer was unphased when Roblox Corp. learned of his illicit messages to preteens, merely transferring the ownership of his game to a friend and reaping the benefits thanks to the controversy. However, he was eventually arrested in 2022 in connection with a 15-year-old girl from Indiana whom he groomed. He was later sentenced to 15 years in prison when “he pleaded guilty to transporting a minor across state lines to engage in sex”.
This example isn’t an isolated case, as the report highlights that, “Since 2018, police in the US have arrested at least two dozen people accused of abducting or abusing victims they’d met or groomed using Roblox.” It also suggests that while Roblox itself might be moderated, pedophiles would lure in children with the promise of Robux, the platform’s currency, in exchange for photos or engagement on other platforms such as Snapchat or Discord, and even lure them in person.
The report continues that among its 78 million-plus active users each day, Roblox Corp’s 3,000 moderators process more than 50,000 chat messages. That number is significantly below the number of TikTok, which employs 40,000, but Roblox insists its smaller team doesn’t compromise the quality of moderation. Its chief safety officer, Matt Kaufman, rejected the idea that Roblox has its problems, instead suggesting the issue is widespread across the industry. Current and former employees who battled against predators, however, have described policing the platform as a “Sisyphean task”.
Later in the report, it mentions “the word ‘grooming’ didn’t appear in [Roblox Corp’s] 2022 moderation guide, a copy of which was seen by Businessweek.” It also has damning statements from current and former employees, who say that senior leaders didn’t investigate how Robux was being used by predators to lure kids into potential danger.
In the subsequent years, the developer has invested in tools to catch and remove players who harass people on any platforms outside of Roblox or offline, as well as identify newly created accounts by those users it has previously banned. According to the Bloomberg report, “In 2023 [Roblox Corp] reported 13,316 instances of child exploitation to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, less than 0.04% of all reports to the center, compared with 2.973 the previous year”.
The Official Roblox Response To Parents
In an article published on BBC News in March 2025, Roblox CEO and co-founder David Baszucki was asked about his message to parents who didn’t want their kids to play on the platform. “My first message would be, if you’re not comfortable, don’t let your kids be on Roblox,” he responded. “That sounds a little counter-intuitive, but I would always trust parents to make their own decisions”.
This comment was met with a negative response, particularly from parental groups, including Mumsnet. Its co-founder, Justine Roberts, said that the responsibility shouldn’t solely rest on parents. “If you’ve got multiple children you’re looking after and things happen, and you probably can’t 24/7 watch everything they’re doing, even if you’ve got all your parental controls set”.
In recent times, Dave Baszucki has been supporting the legislation of the updated Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act. Speaking on MSNBC, he says that the company uses AI to estimate age, and that for teenagers in particular, Roblox now has a feature called Trusted Connections, which allows players to link up only with people they know. Other changes include preventing accounts from players under the age of 13 from sending direct messages or playing any experiences where players only hang out and socialize.
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