Teen Councils, Parental Controls, And More in a Brief Conversation With Roblox
As part of Safer Internet Day, a few questions with the folks behind one of the most popular gaming and social spaces for kids.
Last Tuesday was “Safer Internet Day,” a movement started in the UK but now takes place across many countries. “Safer Internet Day aims to not only create a safer internet but also a better internet, where everyone is empowered to use technology responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively,” reads the official U.S. website.
There are ways for schools to apply for grants, well-meaning panel discussions, etc.
I wasn’t aware of this event, but Crossplay overlaps with the goals of Safer Internet Day. (Though I would argue pointed legislation and regulation is the real path forward.) But when the folks at Roblox provided an opportunity to ask an executive a few questions about the company, policies, and its approaches to safety, I said yes.
Roblox is, of course, a complicated subject. One of the first articles I wrote here was about giving permission to let my oldest engage with Roblox during COVID-19, a concession to her desire for social activity with a friend. It was a complicated “yes,” as Roblox has been credibly accused, time and time again, of not doing enough to protect children. Some parents ban it. But Roblox has provided enormous joy to my kids, as well, and the parental controls, despite taking too long, are now in a pretty good place.
Like most decisions by parents for children, it’s complicated and with compromises.
Roblox is, it should be noted, a corporate sponsor of Safer Internet Day, alongside Sony Interactive Entertainment (aka PlayStation), Apple, Amazon, and others.
I recently passed along a few questions to Tami Bhaumik, Roblox’s VP of civility and partnerships. She’s been there for nearly a decade, aka a decade in which Roblox has ascended to nearly the top of the food chain when it comes to youth digital spaces.
With younger kids, there is Roblox, YouTube—and everything else. It’s enormous.
I thought it might be worth sharing the exchange in full. With most interviews, whether conducted over the phone or through email, I’ll pick and choose answers and try to weave together a broader story. Why not hear from Roblox in their own words?
The result is an email Q&A that is, at times, a little corporate, but insightful to see how Roblox views itself when asked about its basic operations. (To be fair, in my experience as a reporter, email interviews almost always end up more corporate-y.)
For the tl;dr crowd, here are the most interesting takeaways from the exchange:
Bhaumik declined to share how many children have active parental controls attached to them, but said the company is “pleased to see parents have linked to their child’s account and are checking out our new features and controls”
Roblox views itself as an “immersive gaming platform, not a game and not a social media platform,” the latter of which I think folks would disagree with and comes down to the technical difference between social space vs. social media
When asked about parental controls that parents should be aware of, Bhaumik pointed at time limits, viewing friend lists, spending limits, and maturity limits
Roblox’s “Teen Council” will announce the teens making up the group “soon,” by which Bhaumik hopes to “foster a safer, more inclusive, and positive digital space”
The company said it relies on various ways to develop features for parents and kids, including “international surveys with users around the world” alongside “child safety and media literacy organizations and child development experts”
Nothing revelatory, but I’ll be keeping an eye on the Teen Council. It’s interesting.
If you’d like to read the entire interview, I’ve included it below.
Do you have any data on how many children have accounts managed under parental controls? I’m curious what Roblox has done to try and expand its educational outreach with parents over the years.
Tami Bhaumik: While we can't share any data at this time, we're pleased to see parents have linked to their child's account and are checking out our new features and controls.
Roblox has built safety by design into its platform from the start, ensuring that younger users have built-in protections and that parents have a range of controls to customize their child’s experience. Recently, we introduced new parental tools and policies for our youngest users, such as:
Remote account management so parents can adjust settings even when not physically present.
Stronger chat protections by disabling direct messaging by default for users under 13.
Revamped Content Labels to help parents make informed choices about the experiences their kids access.
Beyond product updates, educational outreach is central to our mission. We have partnered with ConnectSafely and organizations like Childnet International to promote Safer Internet Day, providing parents with actionable tips on digital literacy, mental health, and online safety.
Roblox is dedicated to empowering people with the tools, skills, and knowledge to know what to do, how to process the event to protect your mental health, and to stay safe. We educate parents through partnerships with parent education organizations such as Sesame Workshop, Family Online Safety Institute with their Good Digital Parenting resources, and the Digital Wellness Lab with Boston Children’s Hospital. We produce a wide range of guides and podcasts to empower and educate parents and young people. Resources for parents and teens can be found at: https://corp.roblox.com/families
What would you describe as the biggest misconception that parents have about Roblox?
Bhaumik: Roblox is an immersive gaming platform, not a game and not a social media platform. People can communicate in game to collaborate—for example, learning entrepreneurial skills by opening a pizza parlor together—but content on Roblox isn't shared or distributed in the same way as content is on social media, there is no re-sharing content, posting, commenting, image sharing, or other similar viral features on the platform. Roblox is also a platform for game creation where people can create experiences using our free creation tools called Roblox Studio. All of the experiences on Roblox are created by developers and creators.
We know that parents are busy but we want parents to know that Roblox aims to be safe by default. Our built-in safety features are more restrictive for our youngest users under 13.
Our Community Standards set clear expectations for how to behave on Roblox. They require that everyone treat each other with civility and respect and help keep everyone safe by prohibiting content and behavior that may be inappropriate or harmful. Every day, tens of millions of users of all ages have safe and positive experiences on Roblox, abiding by the company’s Community Standards.
Is there a safety feature that Roblox offers that you believe more parents should be aware of and use?
Bhaumik: Parents should take full advantage of Roblox's suite of parental controls which also allows for parents to remotely manage their child's account from their own device. They can set daily screen time limits, see who their friends are on Roblox, set spending limits, and adjust content access based on the maturity of their children.
Additionally, mute and block functions empower kids to take control of their interactions, reinforcing positive digital habits.
Back in October, you announced a Roblox Teen Council, meant to provide feedback to Roblox from some of its older users. Can you update us on the council, and what you’re hoping to accomplish with the interactions?
Bhaumik: We collaborated with the Boston Children’s Digital Wellness Lab to host a series of Civility Innovation Workshops with researchers, physicians, safety leaders, tech industry, and teens to workshop how to create a more civil and safe online world. The one thing that came out strongly was to include teens meaningfully through the identification of problems and the solutions.
We launched the Roblox Teen Council as part of our Youth Engagement Program, providing a platform for teens to share insights on digital civility and online well-being. The Teen Council will be able to share their insights on new features and policies so that we can make our product relevant to their needs. The council will also help to create wellbeing and safety education from teens for teens which can be the most effective form of education. We will be announcing our slate of teens soon. Through their perspectives, we aim to foster a safer, more inclusive, and positive digital space that truly reflects the needs of young people today.
How does Roblox survey and research what new features to introduce for parental controls?
Bhaumik: We’ve worked closely with kids and parents to understand their knowledge of Roblox’s platform; the information and controls they are looking for; and the concerns they have around safety, engagement, and communication on our platform.
We do both qualitative and quantitative analysis of our users, including international surveys with users across the world. Our approach is informed by research with parents and child development experts.
For example, we worked closely with kids and parents to understand their knowledge of Roblox’s platform; the information and controls they are looking for; and the concerns they have around safety, engagement, and communication on our platform when rolling out our most recent parental controls and content labels.
We are grateful for the contributions and support we’ve received from child safety and media literacy organizations and child development experts. These experts provided input, reviewed our updates, and shared perspectives that helped us make these controls as useful as possible for both parents and kids.
We also constantly engage directly with parents, safety experts, and users—including through initiatives like the Roblox Teen Council—to inform product decisions.
As we said in our Newsroom post, we are grateful for the contributions and support we’ve received from child safety and media literacy organizations and child development experts. These experts provided input, reviewed our updates, and shared perspectives that helped us make these controls as useful as possible for both parents and kids.
Have a story idea? Want to share a tip? Got a funny parenting story? Drop Patrick an email.
Also:
Dress to Impress was “the” game in our house for a solid month, though that appears to have died off recently, with Roblox play down as a whole in the house.
Minecraft, on the other hand, is randomly back in vogue, as if my children can sense that there’s a medicore-looking movie coming out in the next few months. My neighbor/friend recently set up a private server for all the kids to join in.
Small wish from Roblox: I wish you could allow “temporary” maturity setting changes. If I want to “approve” my oldest playing something beyond her maturity setting, the whole setting changes, instead of just allowing the single experience.