Roblox is finally adding a more comprehensive set of parental controls, which includes limits on how children under 13 can communicate on the platform.

Roblox has faced increasing criticism in recent years, claiming it isn’t doing enough to ensure children’s safety when playing.

A recent Bloomberg report detailed some of the issues kids face online when playing Roblox, noting that the company itself has reported more than 13,000 cases to US authorities. The report also provides numerous examples of how predators are using the platform to target young people.

Roblox said the number of incidents was actually little in relation to all the content downloaded on the platform.

Today, the company is offering a set of new parental controls that should help parents easily supervise what their children are doing online.

“Today we’re sharing the latest updates to our safety controls, including significant improvements to parental controls, how users under 13 can communicate on Roblox, new content labels, and protections “We’re excited to share these in-depth updates today,” the company said in a blog post. job.

The most critical measure concerns the communication system built into the platform, which deals with how children communicate with each other. Children under 13 will not be able to communicate directly with anyone except someone on their friends list.

Additionally, parents will not have direct access to children’s accounts, which include the friends list. Parental tools will offer many more options, including the ability to filter accessible content, spending restrictions, and even visibility of private servers.

The company will also add much-needed content tags that will make it easier to identify the type of content being viewed.

“We have updated our built-in maturity settings for our youngest users,” the company added. “Users under the age of 9 can now only access “Minimal” or “Light” content by default and can access “Moderate” content only with parental consent. Parents always have the option to select the level they consider most appropriate for their child.

Although many of these new options will be enabled by default, such as preventing children under 13 from sending messages to other people and vice versa, it all depends on parental involvement. Parents should actively use all these new features to ensure children’s safety, including at least indicating the correct age.