Australia secures court-enforceable Roblox child safety undertaking

• eSafety found adults could still contact young children without parental consent.
• The company must undergo an independent audit of its safety systems and age-estimation technology.
• eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said Roblox “cannot mark their own homework.”

Australia’s internet regulator has secured a court-enforceable undertaking from Roblox to strengthen protections against grooming and sexual exploitation.

As reported by Reuters, the move comes after the eSafety Commissioner found adult strangers could still send connection requests to young Australian children without parental consent.

Children and adults could also interact through forums outside games without parental approval, while children’s connections, profiles and other information were visible to other users.

Under the undertaking, Roblox has three months to introduce measures preventing adults from contacting unknown children without parental consent, make children’s accounts private by default, and improve its complaint reporting and user notification systems.

Safety measures

Roblox must also appoint an independent third-party auditor to assess its safety measures, including its age-estimation technology. eSafety said this marks the first time it has required an external safety audit by a technology company.

“Roblox cannot mark their own homework,” eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.

If Roblox breaches the undertaking, eSafety can apply to the Federal Court for an order requiring the company to comply, as well as seek other orders.

Roblox said it had delivered on its commitments to eSafety over the past 12 months and would continue working with the regulator to improve child safety.

Earlier this month, the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism opened an investigation into child safety on Roblox, claiming the platform has been used for kidnapping, rape and murder of children.