Roblox Reaches $12 Million Settlement with Nevada, Enhancing Online Protection for Minors
The popular interactive gaming platform Roblox has reached a settlement exceeding $12 million with the state of Nevada and agreed to significantly improve online safety measures for underage users. Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford stated this is the first agreement of its kind and is expected to set a "benchmark" for how online interactive platforms can make their products safer for teenagers.
According to Ford, Roblox will provide $10 million to Nevada over three years to support organizations such as the "Boys & Girls Clubs" and other offline activity projects. It will also fund dedicated law enforcement liaison positions to promptly respond to law enforcement needs related to platform safety and sponsor an online safety awareness campaign. The settlement, reached before litigation, requires the platform to implement a series of enhanced protections for underage users, including age verification for all users and restricting nighttime notification pushes to minors.
Roblox currently has a penetration rate of nearly half among children under 16 in the United States, making its safety measures a focus of attention from regulatory agencies in various states. In addition to Nevada, the platform faces lawsuits in Texas and Kentucky, alleging it failed to adequately protect children. Ford stated that he has also filed lawsuits against social media companies such as Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and Kik, accusing them of deficiencies in child safety protection.
Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman stated in a statement that the company is "proud to partner with Attorney General Ford to reach this landmark agreement," and that the agreement further promotes the establishment of new digital safety standards based on the company's existing safety work. He believes the settlement provides a replicable "blueprint" for how the industry and regulators can work together to protect children.
This settlement is situated within a broader trend of social media regulation. Recently, attorneys general in multiple U.S. states have filed lawsuits against major social media companies, questioning whether their product designs intentionally "hook" young users and induce addiction. Just last month, in cases in California and New Mexico, Meta and YouTube were found liable for addressing the issue of addiction among minors in their platform designs and were collectively fined over $375 million.
Under the agreement with Nevada, Roblox will introduce facial age estimation technology to categorize chat partners by age, restricting younger users to interacting only with similarly aged groups. Ford pointed out that adult users and those under 16 should, in principle, not be able to chat with each other unless the other party is marked as a "trusted friend" by the system. So-called trusted friends need to be added by scanning a QR code or phone contact list to ensure the child knows the contact outside the platform, thereby reducing the risk of contact with strangers at the source. The company will also monitor user behavior and take appropriate measures if there is a significant discrepancy between the declared age and the actual age.
In terms of account management, Roblox will set up dedicated "child accounts" for users under 16, automatically blocking adult-rated content and providing only age-appropriate games for them to choose from. Accompanying this, parental supervision and control functions will be expanded from originally covering only users under 13 to all users under 16, allowing parents to more comprehensively understand and intervene in their children's activities on the platform.
Donch’e King, head of criminal investigations at the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, pointed out that approximately 500,000 online predators are active on various platforms at any given time and often appear on multiple social or gaming platforms simultaneously. He emphasized that the majority of harmful contact with children occurs in chat rooms and instant messaging features, making it crucial for parents and children to communicate openly, understand the platforms they use, and report any abnormalities to law enforcement in a timely manner. “Protecting Nevada’s children is not an option, it’s our duty,” King said.