Reports of child grooming and inappropriate content on popular game service Roblox has “alarmed” communications minister, Anika Wells, who has demanded the platform explain how it is addressing sexual and self-harm material, and that its PG rating be reviewed by the Australian Classification Board.
The eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant has also reached out to the game platform, saying it plans to test the promises it made about keeping children safe online, including disabling chat features and making underage accounts private. Following these tests, the eSafety office has said it “may take further action under the Online Safety Act”.
Wells has also asked the eSafety commissioner about any short-term measures that could be taken, and separately has written to the classification board to ask if Roblox’s PG rating remains appropriate.
In the letter to Roblox, Wells noted the company had worked with the eSafety commissioner on additional safety measures for children but that issues appeared to continue.
“We remain highly concerned by ongoing reports regarding the exploitation of children on the Roblox service, and exposure to harmful material,” Grant said.
“Even more disturbing are ongoing reports and concerns about children being approached and groomed by predators, who actively seek to exploit their curiosity and innocence,” she said in the letter to Roblox.
“We look forward to the opportunity to inform the Minister of the steps we take to help keep our community safe. Roblox has robust safety policies and processes to help protect users that go beyond many other platforms, and advanced safeguards that monitor for harmful content and communications. We have filters designed to block the sharing of personal information, our chat features don’t allow user-to-user image or video sharing, and age checks are required before anyone has access to chat,” a Roblox spokesperson told B&T.
“Those same checks are also used to limit kids and teens to only chatting with others of similar age by default. We also work closely with Australian law enforcement to support their investigations. While no system is perfect, our commitment to safety never ends, and we continue to strengthen protections to help keep users safe,” they added.
Communications minister Anika Wells has referenced media reports alleging children can access spaces meant for adults which include explicit sexual content.
Guardian Australia published a report last November documenting a week of virtual sexual harassment and violence. While playing as an eight-year-old girl, the reporter was given a sexualised avatar, cyberbullied, aggressively killed, sexually assaulted and shat on – all with parental control settings in place.
“This is untenable, and these issues are of deep concern to many Australians parents and carers,” Grant continued.
While platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Kick were included in Australia’s under-16s social media ban, gaming sites such as Roblox were not.
Wells and her department are investigating levers to regulate services such as Roblox.
“I welcome the minister for communications’ correspondence and the Australian government’s support on this important issue as we use all of the tools available to us to keep Australian kids safe online,” Inman Grant said.
