Age Verification on Roblox Is Just Ridiculous.
Age verification is all the rage these days. Governments around the world are pressuring tech companies to verify users’ ages to access their services. Sometimes this means uploading an ID to verify their age ; other times, it involves an AI system that determines your age based on your appearance, activity, and behavior.
Roblox is the latest platform to introduce new age verification rules after facing intense criticism from parents, researchers, and even attorneys general, who, among other things, claim that Roblox allows predators to communicate with children through the platform. In response, the company announced new age verification rules in September and November last year, then rolled them out in select countries in December. This week, Roblox rolled them out in the US. All of this sounds good—the problem is, the system is a complete disaster.
How Roblox’s age verification system should work
To verify your age on Roblox, you first need to complete a “Face Age Verification,” which uses your device’s camera to scan your face in the Roblox app. All photos and videos submitted through this verification system are forwarded to Persona , an age verification service, and subsequently deleted, according to Roblox. (If you’re 13 or older, you can also provide ID for age verification instead .)
If you verify your age with an ID, the system will determine it based on the information in your documents. However, the age verification service through Persona simply estimates your age based on a facial scan. Let’s say you’re 15 years old—after scanning your face, the system might determine your age as between 13 and 15. Once the system determines (or thinks it has determined) your age, it will allow you to chat with other Roblox users in your age group, as well as with groups nearby. Age groups are segmented as follows: 9-12, 13-15, 16-17, 18-20, 21+. (Users under nine years old do not have access to chat features.) If you don’t want to verify your age, you can choose not to do so. However, in this case, you will not have access to chat features.
Users over 13 can communicate with users outside their age group, provided they establish these connections through Roblox’s Trusted Connections system. Users can be added either through the Contacts app on their phone or by scanning a QR code in person to establish trust. Roblox states that, for example, a 12-year-old can communicate with users under 15, as that’s the next age group up, but won’t be able to communicate with users over 16. An 18-year-old, on the other hand, can communicate with users over 16, as well as with younger users, if they first add them to their Trusted Connections list.
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I understand Roblox’s position, to some extent. It’s logical that children can only interact with their peers, but there’s also the opportunity for close family and friends to interact. I’m not entirely comfortable with some of these age groups (is it really appropriate for 15-year-olds to interact with 9-year-olds?), but given that the previous rules allowed anyone to interact with anyone , this is a step in the right direction—or would be, if the system actually worked.
How age verification actually works (or doesn’t work) in Roblox.
As WIRED reports , Roblox’s age verification system isn’t working quite as intended. In fact, it’s a complete mess. The problems range from glitches in the age verification system itself to workarounds that allow users to fake their age.
WIRED discovered that several users are selling age-verified accounts to minors on eBay, some as young as nine, for as little as $4. Some parents have apparently also allowed their children to be verified as 21+, even though they are under that age. One child even asked their mother to scan their face, gaining full access to an adult Roblox chat. If the child’s parent refuses to cooperate, it’s no problem: they can simply use an avatar or photo of an adult to trick the system, or even draw a fake beard on themselves to get an 18+ rating.
Users are also dissatisfied with the system. This Reddit thread is full of players frustrated with the age verification rules, either because it violates their privacy or because they aren’t placed in the correct age group—and therefore can’t communicate with their friends. Worse, some are being identified as much younger or much older than they actually are, leading to older teens being placed in chats with young children, or vice versa—precisely the situation Roblox claims they’re trying to avoid. One user claims his 10-year-old sister was assessed as being between 18 and 20, while another says he was placed in the 13-16 age group despite his “bushy beard.” One user even claims he was banned for telling a child to stay out of the 18+ chat.
Roblox is aware of these and many other issues, and on its developer forum, the company announced a series of updates to address them. These include a new option for parents to correct their children’s ages if they’ve been entered incorrectly, as well as an upcoming update that prevents parents from falsifying their children’s ages. But this is further proof that AI-based age verification systems aren’t the perfect solution many companies advertise. No one wants to put children in danger, but there must be a better system than these, which compromise user privacy, disrupt core functionality, and can even inadvertently place children in chats with users they shouldn’t interact with.