Roblox will roll out mandatory age estimation to every user before 2026, combining facial-scan AI, government-ID checks and verified parental consent to determine who can talk to whom inside its meta-game ecosystem. Once the system is live, adults and minors will be blocked from chatting unless the platform confirms they already know each other in real life, a change that could sever predator pipelines highlighted in recent Louisiana, Oklahoma and Michigan lawsuits.
The same update roadmap adds IARC-certified age and content ratings (ESRB for the U.S., PEGI for Europe) to every player-created Roblox experience, replacing the current developer-supplied labels and subjecting titles to country-specific standards. No launch window was given for the ratings switch-over.
The moves arrive after the UAE and other Gulf states blocked access to Roblox over child-safety failures, and weeks after the platform banned a high-profile user who streamed predator-catching stings. Roblox Corp says the enhanced verification stack will deliver “a more accurate measure of a user’s age than simply relying on what someone types in when they create an account,” and promises further moderation refinements as legal pressure mounts.
