Roblox Age-Verification: Major Backlash
- Abby Cruz
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
Roblox is a huge online space with millions of users, mostly consisting of children. The platform added new age-verification features to the game in order to create a safer platform for kids but players are unhappy. There have been several reports of issues occurring with face verification and frustration with the process. Most of all, it invades user privacy and safety rather than protecting them.
Problems
To verify age on the platform, you may use the facial analysis or the government ID option. Reports from players have shown that several of them have been put in the wrong age group with the facial analysis option due to it being powered by AI. The youngest individuals that are needed to verify age is 13 years old and they are being put into the 18+ age group. This shows that the selfie option to verify age is not accurate in identifying how old the person playing is. It is putting children into adult age groups which is completely problematic.
People can easily show a picture instead of their real selves for age-verification as well. This points towards how people can purposely show an image of a person who is a different age in order to get into a specific age group.
Additionally, there is limited communication due to the feature of users being restricted to only chatting with their age group. With the incorrect facial analysis, it results in children talking to players that are much older than them instead of a general chat with people of all ages which is much more convenient and safe. This limitation further led to the reduction in chat activity on the platform’s games.
Even if someone has had their account for a long time, a verification is still required for them to play. This makes these features seem even more unnecessary and intrusive to show their faces on Roblox in order to verify their age. This gives great frustration to long time Roblox players which find the process to be time consuming and completely redundant.
Privacy & Safety
Instead of these new features being added to keep kids safe on the app, it makes it even easier for predators to contact minors. They can make an account that is categorized in the younger age groups which restricts them to only talking to people younger than them. It makes it more simple for them to impersonate a minor and take advantage of them.
People are even selling Roblox users on ebay for certain age groups so these online predators can bypass the whole age-verification process and just buy an account online that matches a certain age group. Vice versa, children can also buy these accounts in order to be in an older age group.
Although the features are made to prevent this from happening, it doesn’t stop these people from being able to bypass it with simple technology. Parents, as well as Roblox, should teach their young players to understand warning signs and be more aware in addition to making better safety features.
Rather than enhancing safety measures, it creates a more dangerous online space.
Players complain about how the new features devoid the life out of the game itself. It does a complete disservice to Roblox players who just want to have fun on the platform. These new features are excessive and there are better ways to handle user safety. Instead of age verification, Roblox should go back to the way it was before.
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