Australia forces Roblox to strengthen child protections under court-enforceable agreement

Australia's eSafety Commissioner has secured a court-enforceable undertaking requiring Roblox to introduce stronger protections for children within three months. The regulator said testing found adult strangers could still send connection requests to Australian children and interact with them through parts of the platform without parental approval.

Required measures include making children's accounts private by default, preventing unknown adults from contacting children without parental consent, improving complaint reporting and engaging an independent third-party auditor to examine the effectiveness of Roblox's safety measures and age-estimation technology. The external audit requirement is particularly significant because eSafety says it is the first time such a measure has been imposed under Australia's Online Safety Act.

Roblox has said it will continue working with the regulator toward improved protections. The agreement is important far beyond Australia because Roblox operates globally and combines gaming with extensive social functionality. Platforms aimed heavily at younger users increasingly face the same expectations as conventional social networks around age assurance, messaging and privacy. Failure to comply could allow Australia's regulator to seek Federal Court enforcement.