Roblox audit
Roblox: what's actually risky, and the 5 switches to flip
Roblox isn't one game, it's millions of them. The risk isn't the games — it's the chat, the trades, and the age on the account.
Roblox isn't a game you can judge as a whole. It's a platform holding millions of user-made games, and the difference between a good afternoon and a bad one is mostly which of them your child is in and who they can talk to while they're there.
The two things that carry real risk are chat and trading. Chat is filtered, not human-moderated, and a filter catches words rather than intent. Trading moves virtual items between players, and the 'free Robux' sites that orbit Roblox exist almost entirely to harvest logins and payments.
The good news is that Roblox has shipped a genuinely large change to how chat works, and it's the single best reason to set this up now rather than after the first bad week.
Before you flip anything
What the platform does without you
Minimum age
Roblox does not state a single platform-wide minimum age in the help-centre pages we checked. Account creation requires a birthdate, and particular features carry their own floors — government-ID age verification, for example, requires being at least 13. Treat 'what age is Roblox for' as a question about which features are switched on, not one number.
Roblox Support · Official help centre, currentBy default
Chat is filtered for everyone, and players aged 12 and under have posts and chats filtered for both inappropriate content and personal information.
Roblox Support · Official help centre, currentBy default
From 19 November 2025 Roblox began rolling out facial age checks to access chat, sorting players into age bands (under 9, 9-12, 13-15, 16-17, 18-20, 21+) and restricting chat across bands unless both sides are 'Trusted Connections'.
Roblox Newsroom · 19 November 2025By default
The rollout is phased: voluntary from 19 November 2025, mandatory in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands from 3 December 2025, and stated to go global from early January 2026. What your child sees may change again before you finish reading this.
Roblox Newsroom · 3 December 2025Must-flip
The switches worth changing
0 of 5 done
Link your own account as the parent
Roblox replaced the old Parent PIN with a parent account you link to your child's. You verify your own age by facial estimate or government ID, then manage their settings from your own login instead of standing next to their device.
Settings>Parental Controls>Add parent
Set the content maturity slider
This decides which games your child can open, and it's the control that actually separates the reasonable experiences from the ones parents regret. Restricted (18+) content requires the player to be age-checked.
Settings>Parental Controls>select your child>Settings you manage>Content restrictions>Content maturity
Tighten who can chat, follow and invite them
Communication controls cover who can message your child, who can follow them, and who can pull them into a private server. Set all three, not just chat — a private server is where the rules above stop applying.
Settings>Privacy & content restrictions>Communication
Turn trading and inventory visibility off
Trading needs a paid membership on both sides, and it's the mechanic behind almost every 'free Robux' scam aimed at kids. If your child isn't deliberately using it, switch it off — and switch off inventory visibility so their items aren't a target list.
Account Settings>Privacy & content restrictions>Trading & inventory
Check the birthdate on the account
The age on the account now decides which chat band your child sits in and which protections apply. If it's wrong — often because a child typed an older age to get in — every age-based rule above is aimed at the wrong person.
Account Settings>Personal
Watch for this: If the age was set wrong at sign-up, correcting it can change what your child can access. Do it deliberately and explain it, rather than quietly.
Watch for this
What to notice, not just what to block
Watch for this
'Free Robux' sites
Almost every offer of free currency is built to capture a login or a card detail. There's no version of this that's worth the risk, and your child will meet it in YouTube thumbnails before they meet it on Roblox.
Watch for this
Anyone who wants to move the chat somewhere else
Discord, Snap, a phone number. Leaving Roblox is how the filtering and the age-band rules stop applying, so the request itself is the thing to notice — not what they were chatting about.
Watch for this
Private servers
A private server is a room where the usual crowd rules don't apply and the people inside are chosen by whoever made it. It's a legitimate feature and a common way in.
Worth knowing
The age-check rollout is on your side
Facial age checks are an awkward, imperfect fix — but a 12-year-old being unable to be messaged by an adult outside their band is a real change, and it's worth not undoing it while you're setting the rest up.
Honest limits
What these settings won't do
Chat filtering is not moderation
The filter catches words. It does not read the shape of a conversation, and it does not notice a slow move from friendly to private.
A parent account sees controls, not transcripts
Linking as a parent lets you set limits. It does not hand you a record of who messaged your child or what was said.
This page will be out of date within months
Roblox is mid-rollout on the largest safety change in its history. The band names, the enforcement dates and the menu labels are all moving — re-check before you rely on a specific date.
Before the download
Three questions to agree out loud
These aren't a test. They're the conversation that makes a yes safe — and they work for an app that isn't on this list too.
- 1Which games specifically are you playing — open them with you and show me.
- 2Who can you talk to while you're playing, and what do you do if someone you don't know starts chatting?
- 3If someone offers you free Robux or asks to move the chat to another app, what happens next?
Settings vs street smarts
Controls set the boundary. Judgement keeps them safe when you're not looking.
The content slider and the chat bands decide who can reach your child inside Roblox. They say nothing about what they'd do when a 'friend of a friend' offers a free Robux trade, or an unknown gamer asks for a selfie to prove they're real. NetWise Kids puts them in a realistic group chat, DM or trade request and lets them practise saying no — before the real one arrives.
Other audits
The other four apps
Evidence
Where every number on this page comes from
Nothing here is estimated. If a figure couldn't be sourced, it was cut.
Roblox Support
Official help centre, current
The platform's own documentation
Roblox Support
Official help centre, current
The platform's own documentation
Roblox Support
Official help centre, current
Safety Features: Chat, Privacy & Filtering
The platform's own documentation
Roblox Newsroom
19 November 2025
Roblox requires age checks, limits minor and adult chat
The platform's own documentation
A live rollout. Age bands and enforcement dates were still moving at the time of writing.
Roblox Newsroom
3 December 2025
Safety snapshot: age checks for chat
The platform's own documentation
Mandatory from 3 December 2025 in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands; Roblox stated global enforcement from early January 2026. Re-verify before publishing a precise date.
Roblox Support
Official help centre, current
The platform's own documentation
Trading requires Roblox Premium or Plus on both sides and is not available to all regions.