After banning social media for teen users, Australia has set its eyes on Roblox

Last year, Australia implemented its newest online safety regulations, where children as old as 16 wouldn’t be able to sign up for social media platforms or services like Twitch or TikTok. The restrictions ranged from limited access to outright bans for kids, spearheaded by Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells. 

The minister, along with the Australian eSafety Commissioner’s office, has directly contacted Roblox concerning "graphic and gratuitous user-generated content." At the time, gaming platforms like Steam and Roblox weren’t directly under fire, but now they’ve been asked to explain the steps they’ve taken to enforce Australia’s new online regulations against child exploitation and self-harm material, calling for the Australian Classification Board to rethink its PG rating.

Roblox has also been notified by the Australian eSafety office, which "intends to directly test the platform's implementation and effectiveness of the nine safety commitments it made to Australia's online safety regulator last year." These nine features were part of Roblox’s commitment made last year, which included restrictions on private accounts for under-16s and on voice chat for 13-15-year-olds, some of which have been rolled out globally, like the mandatory facial age verification process to access chat features. 

It seems that the eSafety office feels Roblox could still be doing more. “We remain highly concerned by ongoing reports regarding the exploitation of children on the Roblox service, and exposure to harmful material,” eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said. She also added that eSafety would directly test the implementation of the safety steps they had taken, so the office could better understand the depths of the company's compliance. Depending on eSafety's findings, Roblox could face fines of up to AUD $49.5 million, equivalent to around $35 million in USD. 

Seeking what the minister calls an urgent meeting with Roblox, Wells acknowledges ongoing media reports of Roblox, alleging that children are still able to access explicit content on the platform. "I am alarmed by reports of children being exposed to graphic and gratuitous user-generated content on the platform, including sexually explicit and suicidal material," she wrote in her communication with Roblox.

More alarming perhaps were the recent reports of children being approached by predators with the intention of grooming, who sought to exploit their “curiosity and innocence." Just recently, a Queensland man was accused of using the popular children’s gaming platform Roblox and Fortnite as a means to "groom and coerce" a large number of kids. 

The US has also joined the Land Down Under in its investigations into how safe these platforms are online, announcing a criminal investigation into Roblox, led by Florida attorney general James Uthmeier, with Texas attorney general Ken Paxton adding that “Roblox must do more to protect kids from sick and twisted freaks." With the US, AU, and the EU implementing stricter regulations on services, Roblox and similar platforms will need to ensure that the steps taken to prevent abuse are satisfactory.

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