Roblox scrambles in order to combat the 'pedophile Hellscape' allegations, but changes to pre-teen account don't seem to be enough

Roblox has changed its policies for preteen users just weeks after an investment research firm's damning report condemned the game as "pedophile Hellscape."

Bloomberg reports that Roblox sent an email to parents this week informing them that starting in November, children under 13 years old will need parental permission to use certain Roblox features. Children under 9 will not be allowed to play violent or crude humour games without parental permission.

You'll also be able to create an entirely new type of parental account, which will allow you to keep track of the activity and friends of your child. That's it, at least for the moment. Bloomberg was not given any additional information by Roblox about the changes, other than a statement saying that the changes are "part of Roblox’s commitment to make the platform one the safest environments online for our users, especially the youngest users." As a perpetual optimist, I have also contacted Roblox to inquire about the changes. I will update this article if I receive a response.

Roblox's desperate efforts to shut down the accounts of its younger users are not surprising. The company's attitude towards its youngest users has been criticized for more than a year. The "pedophile Hellscape" report that was released earlier this month is one thing, but the game itself was banned by Turkey last August for "child exploitation".

Bloomberg had reported a separate article on a pedophile, who used the game 18 months after the community exposed him as a predator, to groom, kidnap and sexually abuse a 15-year old girl. Before that, Roblox Studio's Stefano Corazza was forced to deny that his company "exploited child labour." Parents of Roblox-playing children filed a class action lawsuit against the company in November last year over complaints about sexual content.

It's not surprising that Roblox is desperately trying to make its platform safe for the many, very many children who use. It's surprising how minor these changes are. It's a good start to require parental permission for certain chat features and violent gaming, but I hope the company's plans go beyond this kind tinkering around the edges.

This could be the case, given that the corporation hasn't really talked about the changes they're making in public yet (but then again, I'm an optimist). It will need to do more if it is to achieve its goal of "1 billion daily users" and 10% global gaming revenue.