Roblox – a parent’s guide
What is Roblox?
Roblox is a multiplayer gaming platform, popular among children and young people. It
currently has over 64 million players.
Roblox is user-generated – which means all games and experiences are created by the
players themselves. It’s a social platform too, so players can interact with one another,
through the games and via the chat function. Many young people enjoy the social element
of playing with others, and the fact that you can design your own games.
Players of all ages can use the site, but the games created are aimed at eight- to 18-year-
olds. Roblox is accessed via smartphones, PC, tablet or Xbox. Players are given the
opportunity to create an avatar (a virtual player) for themselves, which they can dress and
accessorise.
How much does it cost?
Roblox is free to join and users can play games for free, but there are paid-for in-game
purchases available. Players can earn ‘Robux’ – a virtual currency – and use this to
purchase in-game upgrades and accessories for their avatars. It’s a good idea to make
sure that your child is aware that in-game purchases cost real money.
Is it educational?
It can be a creative tool where young people can learn how to build and create spaces
online. However, as with any game or app, it depends how it’s used. Should they choose
to, players can create their own games and write code to make new games and
experiences. Users can work collaboratively, creating and building projects with other
players.
Privacy settings
The settings page is different for under-13 and over-13 accounts.
In under-13 accounts, Roblox only requests a parent’s email address and the social
networks section is set to Privacy Mode.
Roblox – a parent’s guide
In the over-13 accounts, Roblox requests a phone number and email address for the
player.
Children aged 13 and over can add their social media details and decide who they want to
share them with.
There are various options in the dropdown menu including sharing them with ‘no one’ or
‘everyone’.
You might want to go through these settings with your child and check that you, and they,
are comfortable with who they’re sharing their social media account information with.
Roblox – a parent’s guide
What are the safety concerns?
Roblox is very simple to sign up to and doesn’t ask for an email address. Although the
functions are different for players under and over 13, there is no age-verification process
when signing up, so users could enter a different year of birth if they wanted to.
Players can invite each other into a private chat by right-clicking the player’s name during
the game. However, players can decline this request to join the private chat. If you’re
worried about the chat function and just want your child to be able to play the games
without engaging in conversations with other players, there is the option to shut off chat
capability.
Select the privacy option in the dropdown menu for ‘My settings’.
Roblox – a parent’s guide
You will then be able to choose who can message your child, who can chat with them
through the app, and whether they can chat with others during a game. If you want to
make sure your child doesn’t change this setting, you can enable a Parent PIN. This will
need to be entered before any further changes are made to the account. Read more here.
Read more for step-by-step instructions on how to do this
Roblox – a parent’s guide
If your child is going to keep the chat function on and continue to communicate with other
players, it’s important to know how to report any abuse or inappropriate content they may
come across online.
Each game has a red ‘report abuse’ button on the bottom right of the screen. If you click
on it you’re provided with a list of options:
You can also block another player during
the game by clicking on the name of the
user you wish to block inside of the list of
names on the leaderboard.
A menu will open and you can select to
‘block user’. They will not receive a
notification saying they’ve been blocked.
You can also unblock them and report
any abuse directly from this menu too.
Read here for step-by-step instructions
and images.
Roblox – a parent’s guide
What is Roblox doing to keep young people safe?
Roblox says that it’s continually making system updates to respond to any safety concerns
that have been raised.
Children registered as 12 and under automatically have more restricted settings enforced
and are unable to share as much information about themselves online. They can only
directly message other users that they’ve accepted as friends on Roblox.
Players under 13 can only add friends in their age category. They can do this by typing the
player’s username in the search bar at the top of the screen and clicking on the Add
Friend button. The other player will be sent a request which they can either accept or
decline; they can block and unfriend other players at any stage.
Children under 13 can’t search for (or be searched by) those who are registered as 13 and
over. Their chats and posts are also strictly monitored to ensure they don’t give away any
personal details. However, it’s worth noting that it’s easy to create an account under any
name and birth date if a player decides to. Parents will need to ensure that their child is
registered with their correct age.
In June 2017, Roblox added a detection feature designed to ensure all players’ avatars
are wearing appropriate clothing – if it detects an avatar missing a key item of clothing it
will assign default clothing for it.
Tips to keep your child’s Roblox account safe
• Talk to your child about setting a strong password that’s safe. It’s sensible to avoid
words that can be guessed easily. One tip would be to use part of a random
sentence that’s easy to remember and use a mix of lower and upper case, along
with numbers to replace some of the letters.
• Advise your child to keep all their account information and personal information to
themselves, and to always log out when they’ve finished playing.
Roblox – a parent’s guide
• You can help your child enable ‘2-Step Verification’, which adds an extra layer of
security to their Roblox account. In addition to your username and password, you'll
be asked to enter a 6-digit security code that Roblox sends you via email when you
log in from a new device. Read more.
• Watch out for any fake Roblox sites. Roblox makes it clear on its website that only
web addresses ending in roblox.com are legitimate sites, so talk to your child to
ensure they don’t access sites claiming to be Roblox as these may be scams to try
and access personal information or attempt to get players to hand over money.
Summary of potential risks
• Expensive in-game purchases.
• People your child doesn’t know contacting them.
• Abuse and bullying in chat.
• Being able to chat and interact with strangers.
• Age-inappropriate images in games developed by other players.
Our 5 top tips for parents
1. Talk to your child about what they’re doing on Roblox, who they interact with and
what games they play.
2. Make sure security settings are age-appropriate and no private information is
shared.
3. Sit together and look at how to block other users or report online abuse.
4. Talk to your child about making sure they’re kind to others as they play, and to be
careful what they say, even if joking around, as it could be offensive to someone
else.
5. Encourage your child to use Roblox creatively and show you what they have
created.
Roblox – a parent’s guide
Further information and advice
From Roblox Kids safety and guidelines for parents http://bit.ly/2xFUf2Y
If you or your child come across any safety concerns that you want to report directly to
Roblox then email: safety@roblox.com
For other issues unrelated to safety, email: info@roblox.com
From Parent Zone
Our Parenting in the Digital Age online training course consists of four modules with
information and advice on how to keep your child safe online.
More information on the course here:
https://parentzone.org.uk/purchase-parenting-digital-age-here
From CEOP
If you’re worried about any online abuse your child encounters or the way someone has
been communicating with them online then make a report to one of *CEOP’s child
protection advisors. www.ceop.police.uk/CEOP-Reporting/
*CEOP is a command of the National Crime Agency dealing with child exploitation and
online protection.
