COLUMBUS, Ohio — Roblox on Monday announced new features for parents that will connect their accounts to their kids and allow them to monitor activity online.
A spokesperson for Roblox said the new step was an opportunity to open communications between parents and kids.
The newest features include the ability to make your own accounts with identification verification and link it to your child’s profile. Parents can see who their kids are friends with and set spending limits.
Most importantly, parents can view the content level of the game their kids are playing.
For children under 9, automatic game restrictions were put in place on Monday. They will only be able to access games with minimal or mild content levels. There is also moderate and restricted levels.
For kids under 13, all individual chat features will be limited.
“We don’t want little kid to be interacting with thing that aren’t developmentally right for them. But what’s hard about ages and content is that what might be right for an 11-year-old is really not right for another. What’s right for a 16-year-old might not be right for a different 16-year-old,” said Nicky Jackson Colaco, vice president of global public policy for Roblox.
Colaco also said that the ability to connect with a child’s account on Roblox is aimed at helping parents better understand Roblox.
“They can have more visibility over their child’s friend list, set screen time limits (which I know as a parent, I really appreciate), take advantage of content, maturity labels, which will help parents understand the content of a particular experience so they can decide if it’s appropriate for their family,” she said.
Last month, Nationwide Children’s Hospital provided tips for parents about starting the conversation regarding interacting with strangers online.
Experts say the best way to start the conversation with your children is to talk about “tricky people” online and identifying three people that your kid can talk to if they feel like someone is being tricky.
The goal of those conversations is to make sure the child develops a network of people they can talk to if they are too scared to tell you themselves.
“Tens of millions of people are coming to learn to imagine playing with friends, doing things like designing their own fashion line, flying to Mars on a spaceship or learning how to run their pizza parlor,” Colaco said.
However, there’s still a risk of connecting with people online. That’s why the company wanted to set up chat restrictions and profanity restrictions, but It also wants to encourage parents to engage with their kids about their activities.