Roblox defends video selfie age checks for younger users
A company safety executive told NBC News that self-declared ages are no longer enough as Roblox expands facial age estimation.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
2 min read
Roblox is pushing ahead with video selfie age checks as it tries to sort younger players into more restricted account types. The move matters because the platform is using facial age estimation, rather than relying only on users to state their own ages, to decide what children can access.
Eliza Jacobs, Roblox’s vice president of safety product policy, told NBC News that the company believes its age estimation system will keep improving. Jacobs said asking users to check a box saying they are at least 13 is no longer sufficient, according to NBC.
NBC News tested the system by inviting children to try Roblox’s video selfie process. In that demonstration, the children were unable to bypass the check using a fake mustache, NBC reported.
Jacobs told NBC News that Roblox’s facial age estimates can usually come within 1.4 years of a child’s actual age. The company has presented the technology as part of a broader safety effort for a platform used by children and teens.
How the age checks work
Roblox announced in April that it planned to use video selfie age estimation to place users into age groups. The company’s system now sorts users under 16 into Roblox Select accounts and users under 9 into Kids accounts.
Those account categories come with limits on chat and on access to some kinds of games, according to Roblox’s announced plans. The age checks are meant to determine which restrictions apply to a player.
Roblox also offers other ways to confirm or set a user’s age group. Players can verify their age with a government ID, and parents can manually choose the age bracket for their child.
User drop followed rollout
Roblox reported in April that daily users declined after the company began rolling out age checks. The report put the company’s safety changes in tension with user activity, though Roblox has continued to defend the measures.
Jacobs told NBC News that Roblox is building toward a long-term goal around safety and civil behavior on the platform. She said the company accepts that some users may be unhappy with those choices.
The comments show Roblox trying to make age assurance a more active part of how its platform works. Instead of treating age as a self-reported profile detail, the company is tying age groups to account settings, chat access and game availability.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.