The news: Roblox rolled out new teen-focused safety tools, including age estimation, stricter communication filters, and parent insights. The shift to ramp up age-specific protections follows growing pressure from regulators and parents over child safety risks on the platform, per Fast Company.

Roblox is doubling down on age-gating just as the UK, the EU, and Australia are mandating age verification online. Game and platform owners will likely ramp up protections to avoid regulatory pushback. Here are specific changes: 

• Trusted Connections allow verified teens to chat and voice call unfiltered with people they know—but only if both parties confirm age via selfie-based age estimation or ID.
• Communication between adults and teens is blocked unless a real-life relationship is verified through QR code matching.
• Age estimation will become standard to gate access to age-appropriate features and experiences across Roblox.

For transparency purposes, Roblox uses Persona for age estimation and ID checks, per Roblox principal product manager Ryan Ebanks. Biometric data is deleted after 30 days, unless legally required to retain it. 

Why it matters: Children younger than 14 made up 65% of Roblox players in 2024, per CivicScience, and users skewing younger adds to the complexity of securing the over 40 million games and experiences on the gaming platform.

For marketers, the new safety tools mean they must navigate restricted access to teen audiences and adapt campaigns to comply with age checks, verified relationships, and limited communication channels. 

Proactive compliance: We’re seeing how fast new laws in a handful of countries can result in global changes for platforms.

• For advertisers, these shifts signal a more controlled, compliance-ready platform, but with a narrowed communication pipeline. Brands targeting younger users must now work harder to earn trust and verify age-appropriate engagement.
• These rules also offer marketers a clearer framework to navigate—one that, while more restrictive, enables safer, more accountable engagement with teen audiences.

Our take: Using Roblox’s new rules as a blueprint, marketers looking to cater to younger audiences should build campaigns that align with verified connections, invest in brand-safe messaging, and prepare for an age-gated future across platforms as this becomes the norm. 

Adapting early ensures compliance and preserves access to a key Gen Z and Gen Alpha audience.