Roblox on Wednesday announced that it will employ the use of age estimation technology or government ID to estimate the age of all users.
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Like other online platforms, Roblox has had its problems with minors being harmed in ways ranging from cyberbullying to sexual exploitation. The number of serious cases is very limited, especially when you consider that it has more than 80 million active users. With any population of that size, whether physical or virtual, there will be some horrible situations, even if the vast majority of people never experience a major problem. Still, one tragic outcome is one too many and there are always things companies can do to make their platforms safer.
One way to make online services safer is to know the age of the user and provide age-appropriate experiences or block them if the entire service isn’t right for their age group.
Most providers do ask the user to specify their date of birth, but it’s kind of an honor system. Children often lie to get access to a service or features restricted for older teens or adults. There are various signals that systems use to try to weed out those who lie, but none are all that effective. I’ve seen reliable estimates about millions of young people getting into services or access to age-gated experiences by lying about their age.
Age estimation tech
Although there have always been ways to determine or at least estimate the age of people online, most companies have been reluctant to adopt them. In 2009, I was a member of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, which spent a year studying age verification and concluded that, while practical to determine if someone is an adult, it was not practical to estimate the age of children for a variety of technical, legal and ethical reasons.
Fast forward to 2025. Technologies that were nascent when we wrote that report are now a lot more practical.
By the end of the year, Roblox will start using a combination of facial age estimation technology, ID age verification and verified parental consent to “provide a more accurate measure of a user’s age than simply relying on what someone types in when they create an account,” wrote Chief Safety Officer, Matt Kaufman in a newsroom post. The company already has some protections in place for children and teens but plans to “launch new systems designed to limit communication between adults and minors unless they know each other in the real world.”
Roblox is employing technology from Persona, a San Francisco identification verification company whose website says it can “Ensure that users are who they say they are.” However, Roblox will not use Persona to identify the actual identity of the user, just an estimate of their age, according to Roblox VP of Civility and Partnerships Tami Bhaumik.
New users will either be required to submit an image of a government ID or pose for a video selfie that Persona can analyze to estimate their age. It’s not precise, so if the system determines you’re between 12 and 14, it will default to 12, Bhaumik said. And if it mistakenly identifies a teen as under 13 or an adult as under 18, they can submit a passport, birth certificate or other government ID to prove their age. Another option for minors is for parents to create their own Roblox account and verify the age of their child or teen.
Roblox also announced that it’s adopting the International Age Rating Coalition system so that players in the United States will see age and content ratings from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).
Age brackets
Unlike most social media sites, Roblox is open to users of any age and currently has three age brackets: under 13, 13 through 17 and 18 or older.
For under 13, Bhaumik said that all chat will be turned off with the exception of the in-game chat that is public. “Our goal is to limit any contact between children and adults unless parentally approved.” For teens, Roblox is creating new ways to limit the ability to have private conversations with people they don’t know with a feature called “Trusted Connections” that adds extra steps to help determine that the teen knows the person. “You can Only Connect via QR code, phone bump or phone contacts,” Bhaumik said.
By limiting who a teen can communicate with, Roblox feels that it’s now safer to eliminate some of the filters they had previously placed on teens’ communications, such as the ability to exchange personally identifiable information. By doing so, Bhaumik said, teens are more likely to stay on Roblox vs. moving their conversations to more “risky” platforms that do not have tools in place to help verify if people know and trust each other.
Privacy concerns
Any type of age verification process that requires ID or even submitting images or videos will undoubtedly get some pushback from privacy advocates. Bhaumik said “Roblox’s goal is to be the safest platform, period, and we always will prioritize safety over privacy,” calling it a “great balance of again prioritizing safety and respecting privacy.
It won’t please everyone
I have no illusions that these changes will be universally applauded. Some will complain that it violates privacy for all users, including adults. Some may argue that it has a chilling effect on the ability for people to sign up, because they have to submit to either a video or handing over government ID. Other critics will say it’s too little too late and that children and teens will still be vulnerable to exploitation.
Several years ago, I would have probably said that age estimation that requires video or government ID was overreaching and potentially stifling to free speech. Although I still understand those sentiments, I think the time has come to rethink free speech absolutism and adopt age verification systems that are closer to what we have in the “real world” when it comes to things like buying alcohol or entering an adult bookstore or movie theater.
And my reminder to those who say it’s not strong enough to absolutely guarantee safety, I would argue that no systems are ever strong enough to fully protect people. Not traffic laws, air bags or anything else that helps us reduce but never eliminate risk. We could avoid car accidents by never riding in cars, eliminate kitchen injuries by never cooking and prevent injuries and even deaths by not engaging in sports. We do all those things because they are productive or fun, and we’re constantly looking for ways to make them safer, knowing that they’ll never be 100% safe.
Having said that, I plan to keep my eye on Roblox and other companies to make sure they’re doing what they can to make their services as safe as possible without taking away the very things that make their products attractive and useful. I would recommend they fine-tune their age brackets to distinguish between very young users and pre-teens and between young teens and older teens.
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Disclosure: Larry Magid is CEO of ConnectSafely, a nonprofit internet safety organization that receives financial support from Roblox and other technology companies.