Parent's Guide
Parent's Guide to Making Roblox Safe For Teens
Parents can use a combination of built-in features on Roblox to restrict content and third-party apps to monitor their teen's activity.
If your child or teen plays Roblox, you might have wondered if there are ways for parents to effectively monitor how their teen uses Roblox. As a parent, it's possible to restrict some features on Roblox, although you may need to consider more advanced parental control options if you'd like to go a step further and actively monitor your child's activity in game.
Why Roblox Can Be a Risk For Your Teen or Child
From our perspective, parents need to be aware of how Roblox presents several issues for children or teens.
Parental Controls are not effective for teens 13 years and older
Even with parental controls enabled for Roblox, parents have a limited ability to set restrictions for their teen once the age of their child's account crosses the 13-year-old mark.
For parents with a child below the age of 13, this presents an interesting challenge, since once their child turns 13, Roblox will immediately become much less restrictive. Limits that parents have set for their child, such as sending limits, privacy settings, or communication limits, will no longer apply.
For example, if your child is under 13 years old, you have the option to block and report mini-games/experiences or even players on behalf of your child. Once your child turns 13, your teen is now automatically responsible for blocking players on their own.
Roblox isn't a single "game", and allows players to play multiple "experiences"
Roblox has millions of experiences, so it behaves more like a social media platform. Instead of keeping track of a single game, parents need to moderate entire experiences for their child or teen.
For example, Roblox has a For You page (similar to other kinds of social media) that might look something like this:
Like normal apps and games, each of these experiences has a rating, and the rating system has four options: minimal, mild, moderate, or restricted. If your child is under 13 years old, parental controls will allow you to set the maximum rating like this:
Roblox's Content moderation has been criticized, especially when it comes to content available for children or teens
While Roblox as a company emphasizes how it makes great efforts to restrict content that goes against its own terms of service, the platform has been criticized for not taking action against certain players or experiences that clearly should not have been made available to children.
For many parent's these limitations are a complete deal-breaker as they decide whether they should allow their child or teen to use Roblox.
Games often provide unique ways to communicate without text or chat logs
Roblox includes a dedicated chat feature that players can use to send text messages as they play the game; however, players can also change their appearance (also called their "skin") and "dance" (this is called "emoting"). These provide new ways that players can interact with each other that can't be tracked with a chat log.
Setting Up Roblox's Family Center If Your Child Is Under 13
For children below the age of 13, parents can chaperone their use of Roblox. You may need to consider third-party controls if you'd like more visibility or if your child is above 13 years old.
Roblox uses parental controls that require parents to create a separate Roblox account using their email. Parents will also need to verify their own age using an ID or credit card before they can manage a child or teen's Roblox account.
(1) Add yourself as a parent on your Child or Teen's Roblox account
To get set up as a parent:
After you follow the link sent to your email, you'll be asked to create a new Roblox account and verify your age. This may look slightly different for you depending on your region, but you can usually provide an ID or use a credit card.
(2) Limit what kind of Content your Child or Teen can access on Roblox
Ensure Sensitive Issues are disabled; this will block experiences that are based on real-world issues or controversial topics:
Limit allowed experiences to Minimal only:
(3) Limit Who can Communicate or Voice Chat with your Child or Teen
Limit your child or teen's communication controls and prevent conversations with strangers.
Roblox provides a friends system, and users can join a dedicated voice chat called Party that allows friends to join an experience together. If your child has friends who play Roblox, you can choose to limit who can join your child's Party to people you know and trust. Otherwise, disable Party chat completely.
(4) Disable Private Servers for your Child or Teen
Private Servers are experiences that require an invite to join. It's often difficult for parents to verify that these servers are safe.
(5) Set Spending Limits for your Child or Teen
(6) Set a time limit on Roblox
Roblox allows parents to set a time limit that applies to their child on all devices they play on at once, so it's often a great choice compared to manually setting up different devices with parental controls.
How to Review Your Teen's Activity on Roblox
With Roblox's parental controls enabled and set up correctly, we recommend parents review the following activity on their child or teen's Roblox account.
To make things easier for you to review, it's a good idea for parents to download the Roblox app on their own smartphone; it's far more convenient to change settings and review Roblox activity.
How parents can review recently played games and experiences on Roblox
How parents can review and manage friends for their child on Roblox
If you see an avatar you don't recognize (or just want to review information), you can select the avatar image to view that player's profile. Parents can also block other Roblox players by selecting the options menu (it should look like three dots) next to the avatar and choosing Block.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I view Chat messages that have been sent to my child or teen on Roblox?
Roblox does not allow parents to view messages sent to or by their child, although parental controls on Roblox allow parents to view who their child's friends/connections.
Parents who'd like to see messages sent to their child on Roblox will need to consider a third-party screen monitoring or parental control app.
Can Parents block players from contacting their child or teen on Roblox?
Yes, parents can block strangers or unrecognized players with Roblox parental controls.
To block a specific player that has been added as a friend, go to Settings > Parental Controls > Connections > Manage on the Roblox app or website to view all profiles your child is friends with. Select the options menu (it should look like three dots), then select Block.
To block unknown players from sending chat messages to your child, Settings > Parental Controls > Settings You Manage > Communication > Experience chat. Set both Experience chat and Experience direct chat to Off.
How can parents report players to Roblox?
Parents can report players using parental controls for Roblox. Go to Settings > Parental Controls > Connections > Manage. Next to the player's icon, choose the options menu (the three dots next to their profile picture) and choose Report and/or Block.