Roblox has agreed to pay more than $12 million to the state of Nevada as part of a settlement that includes additional protections for child safety.
As Reuters reports, Roblox will provide $10 million over three years for youth programs in Nevada and $2.5 million for an online safety campaign and a law enforcement liaison.
The company will implement enhanced age verification for all users, monitor account activity, and restrict nighttime notifications for minors (via Associated Press).
Nevada officials initiated discussions with the company in anticipation of litigation, but the issue was resolved before any formal filing.
Roblox will expand parental controls, limit chat options for users under 16, and remove encryption for minors’ chats. Ford said these features will be available nationwide by early June.
“This settlement will create a safer environment for our children online, and I hope that it will serve as a bellwether for how online interactive platforms allow our state’s youth to use their products,” said Ford.
Roblox chief safety officer Matt Kaufman added: “Roblox is proud to have worked alongside Attorney General Ford to reach this landmark agreement, which builds on our work to establish a new standard for digital safety.”
Earlier this week, Roblox announced two new age-based accounts for minors: Roblox Kids for ages five to eight and Roblox Select for ages nine to 15.
These accounts will launch in June and will “more closely align content access, communications settings, and parental control with a user’s age.”
New parental controls will enable parents to block specific games, manage direct chat settings for users up to age 15, and approve access to games not available on a child’s default account.
Last month, officials in Los Angeles filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging unfair and deceptive business practices that endanger and exploit children.
The court paper claimed that Roblox “has built an ecosystem that all but hands predators a roadmap to accessing young users: the platform’s architecture lets adults target minors with ease, masquerade as fellow children, strike up conversations, and manoeuvre themselves into a position of influence over those children, grooming them through repeated interactions.”
Roblox denied these claims: “Roblox is built with safety at its core, and we continue to evolve and strengthen our protections every day. 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.”
Reuters reports that Roblox is currently facing over 140 lawsuits related to child safety concerns, including filings from state attorneys in Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Florida.
