Roblox will soon introduce mandatory age checks for all users who want to access chat features. The update is designed to stop children from communicating with adult strangers by placing verified users into strict age groups and limiting who they can talk to.
The rollout begins in December for select regions and expands globally from January as Roblox responds to growing scrutiny over child safety and pressure from regulators and advocacy groups. Learn more about what these changes mean for millions of young players.
Roblox’s New Chat Rules Explained
Under the new system, Roblox will separate users into strict age-based groups, and chat access will depend entirely on which bracket a player falls into. Children will no longer be able to communicate with adult strangers, and conversations between different age ranges will be blocked by default.
The only exception is “Trusted Connections,” a feature meant for people players know in real life, such as family members or friends they add manually. However, the restrictions are even tighter for younger users.
Under-13s will still be barred from private messages and certain chat features unless a parent explicitly approves them, and chat in some experiences may be disabled by default for players under nine. The goal is to limit unsolicited adult contact and create age-appropriate communication spaces across the platform.
Rollout Timeline and Age Groups
The new chat restrictions will begin rolling out in December for users in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, with the rest of the world following in January. All accounts that want to access chat features will be required to complete the age-check process once the update reaches their region.
After verification, players will be placed into one of six age brackets: under nine, 9 to 12, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, 18 to 20 and 21+. Roblox says chat will only be available between people in similar age groups, with no cross-age communication unless users have added each other as trusted connections.
The company expects the age-based structure to help shape more age-appropriate interactions as the system expands globally.
Related Read: How to Change Account Location on Roblox
Why Has Roblox Introduced Age Checks
Roblox has faced years of criticism over how easy it was for children to encounter inappropriate content or communicate with adults on the platform, despite having a range of safety tools already in place.
Parents and campaigners have repeatedly warned that younger users were still vulnerable to unwanted contact, with some advocacy groups arguing that the platform had not done enough to protect minors. The company is also dealing with mounting legal pressure in the United States.
Roblox is currently being sued in a number of US states, including Texas, Kentucky and Louisiana over child safety concerns, with each case alleging that the platform failed to adequately shield minors from harmful interactions.
These ongoing concerns have increased scrutiny around how Roblox manages communication between its vast number of young players and older users. The new age-based restrictions represent an attempt to address these issues directly by limiting how children and adults can interact.
Regulatory and Government Pressure
The rollout comes at a time when governments are taking a harder line on how tech platforms protect young users. In Australia, the move arrives just ahead of a proposed social media ban for under-16s, with the government under pressure to include gaming platforms such as Roblox in its restrictions.
The timing places the company squarely in the middle of a wider debate about how children interact online and who should be responsible for keeping them safe. In the UK, Roblox will also be expected to meet the requirements of the Online Safety Act, a new set of rules designed to reduce online harms for children.
How Roblox Will Verify Users’ Ages
Roblox will use facial age-estimation technology to verify a user’s age through the device’s camera inside the app. The system analyses an image to estimate whether the player falls into the correct age bracket, and Roblox says the photo is processed by an external provider and deleted immediately after the check is complete.
Parents will still be able to manage their child’s account once verification is finished, including updating a child’s age where necessary. Roblox also notes that the platform already prohibits image and video sharing in chats and heavily restricts external links, with the new verification step intended to create more age-appropriate communication across the service.
Can VPNs Be Used to Bypass the New Age Checks?
Because Roblox is rolling out the new rules region by region, users could temporarily avoid the changes by using a VPN service to appear to connect from a country where age checks have not yet been introduced.
However, once the update becomes globally enforced in January, changing regions will no longer make a difference. The age check requirement will apply to all accounts using chat features, regardless of where they connect from.
Anas Hasan
November 19, 2025
3 hours ago
