Roblox Will Now Require Facial Age Verification for Chat

Roblox will soon become the first major gaming platform to require facial age verification for anyone who wants to use chat features. In 2024, the platform averaged over 80 million daily players, and about 40% of them were under 13. The announcement came from Matt Kaufman, Roblox’s chief safety officer. He claimed the new age-estimation technology is “pretty accurate” and can estimate ages between five and 25 within “one to two years.”

Why Roblox Is Doing This

Roblox says it wants to set a new industry standard for online child safety. To do this, it aims to limit communication between children and adults. Although the feature is already live, it remains optional for now. However, Roblox will make verification mandatory worldwide between December 2025 and January 2026. Players who avoid age checks can still play, but they won’t be able to chat.

How the Age Check Works

Once a user completes the age check, Roblox places them into specific age groups. Then, the platform allows chat only within those groups. Users can bypass these limits only when they add someone as a Trusted Connection.

Roblox says:

• Children under nine will have chat turned off by default, but parents can enable it.
• After consulting child-development experts, Roblox created “common-sense limits” on who can talk to whom.

Here are the age ranges at launch:

• Under 9
• 9–12
• 13–15
• 16–17
• 18–20
• 21+

Example Scenarios

These examples explain the system more clearly:

• Elisa (estimated age 12) can chat with users aged 12–15. Anyone 16 or older cannot start or join a chat with her.
• Marcus (estimated age 18) can chat with players aged 16 or older. He can also add a younger sibling as a Trusted Connection if that sibling is at least 13.

Trusted Connections allow family members with large age gaps to play together safely.

How Roblox Handles Your Data

Roblox says it processes all photos or videos used for verification and deletes them afterward, which aims to reduce privacy concerns.

Why This Matters

The game has faced years of criticism for exposing minors to inappropriate content and adult interactions. Because of this, the company has introduced several new safety tools. Even now, three U.S. states are suing Roblox over child safety issues. In March, CEO Dave Baszucki told parents directly: “If you’re not comfortable, don’t let your kids be on Roblox.”