Is Roblox safe for kids?

Roblox is one of the world’s most played games, especially by children. It’s a sandbox game, meaning players can create their own spaces or games with their own rules or goals (collectively referred to as “experiences”), but its open-ended structure and ability to allow players to communicate directly also raise serious concerns. If your child plays Roblox, it’s essential to understand its risks and how to mitigate them.

In 2020, over half of US kids and teens under 16(ventana nueva) played Roblox and in 2025, the company claimed over 85 million daily active users(ventana nueva). Despite this popularity, very real safety concerns exist about Roblox and its ability to protect children from inappropriate content and bad actors. Since 2018, police in the US have arrested at least two dozen people(ventana nueva) accused of abducting or abusing victims they met or groomed on Roblox, according to a report from Bloomberg Businessweek. In 2025, a report from Revealing Reality(ventana nueva), a UK-based research agency, claims that children as young as 5 could encounter highly suggestive content or have unsupervised contact with adults.

Roblox has been introducing new safety features. We’ll discuss these features, along with the other concerns about Roblox. Given the serious issues surrounding it, we’ll also walk you through the variables you should consider before deciding if you want to avoid Roblox entirely.

• What data does Roblox collect?
• How to minimize data collection
• Roblox parental controls
• How to talk to your child about Roblox
• A better internet for everyone

What data does Roblox collect?

As of 2025, Roblox is facing a class action lawsuit(ventana nueva) in the US for allegedly violating children’s privacy laws. The lawsuit claims Roblox records children’s online interactions and creates an “audio fingerprint”, a unique sound-based identifier, that Roblox can use to track users across sessions and devices.

It also alleges Roblox logs IP addresses, mouse movements, keystrokes, and other telemetry data before users can even log in or consent — and then it shares all of this data with third parties(ventana nueva) for advertising.

If proven to be true, this would violate the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) as well as several other online privacy laws. Roblox’s privacy policy(ventana nueva) states it shares the following data with third-party advertising companies:

• Contact identifiers
• Characteristics or demographics
• Device identifiers

The company also claims it doesn’t collect information from users under 13 for targeted advertising. However, this safeguard relies on children accurately stating their age when creating an account, among other things.

How to minimize data collection

If you live in California, you can opt out of letting Roblox share personal information(ventana nueva) with third parties in accordance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). If you don’t live in California, it’s unclear what you can do to limit Roblox from collecting or sharing your data.

Roblox parental controls

Not all Roblox experiences are safe for children — and content ratings often fail to reflect reality. To help your child avoid inappropriate games, Connected Camps, a nonprofit that promotes safe gaming for kids, created a list of 18 games that are appropriate for children 8-13(ventana nueva) and hosts Roblox clubs(ventana nueva).

However, unless you’re sitting next to your child, it can be hard to ensure they’ll always choose an appropriate experience. Millions exist, and developers make new ones every day. Many are innocent, but others are not. “Boys and Girls Club Roleplay(ventana nueva)“, an experience highlighted by Revealing Reality, was accessible to children and had “mild” content maturity ratings despite its inappropriate and sexually suggestive content.

Roblox has introduced parental controls(ventana nueva), but it’s unclear how effective they are (they existed before the report from Revealing Reality). While they should help limit your child’s exposure to some of the worst behavior on Roblox, you should go into this with your eyes open. Roblox has suffered complaints for years about exposing children to predators and inappropriate content. The company defends itself by saying tens of millions of users enjoy Roblox every day without incident, and only 0.0063% of the 205 billion pieces on content(ventana nueva) on its platform were flagged as violating its policies.

If you decide to allow your child to play Roblox, you should talk to them about how to play responsibly and identify inappropriate content and players. You should also support them by setting up a parent account.

Create a parent account

A parent account will let you set age restrictions, manage chat settings, and limit spending for your child’s account. Before you can do this though, you must verify your age in Roblox to show you’re an adult.

To verify your age:

Before you begin, you will need a government ID handy (such as your driver’s license or passport).

1. Create a Roblox account. Once logged in, select the gear icon in the top corner → Settings.
2. Select Verify My Age → Start Session. Follow the instructions to upload a photo of your government ID.

Once your age is verified, you must link your account to your child’s. Once you do this, you will be in control of your child’s account settings and they will not be able to make changes themselves.

We recommend you talk to your child before you do this. Explain your concerns and why you think having a parent account will help them. Let them express themselves. This will be a much more effective exercise if your child buys in.

To link to your child’s account:

1. Log in to your child’s Roblox account. Select the gear icon in the top corner → Settings.
2. Select Parental Controls → Select Parent. Then type in the email address you used to create your Roblox account.
3. Go to your email inbox. You should see an email from Roblox asking you to link your account to your child’s account. Select Create account (in which case, you’ll need to do the age verification step now) or Use existing account → Agree.

Your accounts are now linked, and you can begin using Roblox’s parental controls, like setting content maturity levels.

Block or report inappropriate content

Each Roblox experience receives one of the following maturity levels(ventana nueva):

• Minimal: May contain occasional mild violence, light unrealistic blood, and/or occasional mild fear.
• Mild: May contain repeated mild violence, heavy unrealistic blood, mild crude humor, and/or repeated mild fear.
• Moderate: May contain moderate violence, light realistic blood, moderate crude humor, unplayable gambling content, and/or moderate fear.
• Restricted: May contain strong violence, heavy realistic blood, moderate crude humor, romantic themes, unplayable gambling content, the presence of alcohol, strong language, and/or moderate fear. These experiences are only available to 17+ users who verified their ages by completing ID verification.

Based on the Revealed Reality report, we recommend setting the maturity level to Minimal for children under 13.

To set content maturity levels:

1. Log in to your Roblox account, select the gear icon in the top corner → Settings.
2. Select Parental Controls → Content maturity. Then slide the bar to choose the desired level of mature content you want your child to be able to see.

You can also block specific experiences, but this must be done one at a time.

To block individual experiences:

1. Open Roblox, select the gear icon in the top corner → Settings → Parental Controls.
2. Select Content Restrictions → Blocked experiences. This will show which experiences are currently blocked. To block new experiences, select the plus icon.
3. Enter the name of the experience you’d like to block in the search bar. Experiences matching your search term will appear and display their maturity level. Press the Block button below an experience to block it.

You can also limit people’s ability to add your child to a private server to start a game with them.

To manage your child’s visibility and access to private servers:

1. Open Roblox, select the gear icon in the top corner → Settings → Parental Controls.
2. Select Visibility and private servers. From here you can select Visibility (which lets you adjust who can see your child’s profile or if they’re currently online) and Private servers (which lets you adjust who can invite your child to play on a private server. This will be set to Friends by default for most children automatically).

Finally, you should teach your child how to report content that makes them feel uncomfortable or is generally inappropriate. This will help your child and others avoid such content in the future.

To report inappropriate content:

1. From the Roblox main page, hover over the game or experience you want to report. Select the three dots icon → Report.
2. You’ll be asked to explain why you’re reporting the content as inappropriate.

Prevent inappropriate conversations

One of the biggest issues on Roblox is that strangers or adults can start inappropriate conversations with children. You can help prevent this by limiting your child’s ability to communicate with only players that have been accepted as Friends.

To manage communication settings:

1. Open Roblox, select the gear icon in the top corner → Settings → Parental Controls.
2. Select Communication → Experience chat. You can create custom chat filters and limit who can message your child.

You should encourage your child to block other users that make them feel harassed, uncomfortable, or angry. This will empower them and make it harder for them to be taken advantage of.

To block a user on Roblox:

1. From the gaming screen, select the Roblox icon in the corner to see a list of all the people in that experience.
2. Find the person/screen name you want to block and select the circle with a line through it.

Once a player is blocked, they will no longer be able to communicate with your child.

Learn more about Roblox’s parental controls(ventana nueva)

How to talk to your child about Roblox

The best way to keep children safe is to help them identify inappropriate or threatening behavior for themselves and teach them how to deal with it. This requires parents to be patient, persistent, and open. This isn’t a single discussion that can be checked off the list. You should approach it as an ongoing conversation that will continue for as long as your child plays online.

Be honest about your concerns for them and what they might face online, like harassment or inappropriate approaches from adults. You should also be prepared to listen to their experience online. These games are often a way for children to flex their creativity, so if you show genuine interest or, better yet, spend some time playing the game with them, they’ll likely share anything you’d like to know.

You should also set boundaries and pay attention for worrying signs. You can use Roblox’s parental controls to set gameplay time limits(ventana nueva) and spending limits(ventana nueva), but it’s more effective in the long run to talk to your child so they understand what’s expected of them and trust them to avoid spending too much time or money on the game.

If you need help framing a discussion with your child, UNICEF(ventana nueva) and the UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children(ventana nueva) have helpful guides.

A better internet for everyone

Creating a safe space for kids online takes more than just parental controls. It requires tools, transparency, and trust. At Proton, we believe children should be able to explore the internet without sacrificing their safety or privacy. That’s why we’re committed to helping families stay informed, reduce data collection, and push for a better digital world.