The Australian Minister of Communications has requested Roblox to respond to “concerns about child exploitation in the Roblox service”. According to The Guardian, both the Minister of Communications, Annika Villes, and the Commissioner for Electronic Security, Julie Inman Grant, sent letters to Roblox to discuss reports of child abduction and “highly alarming access to hazardous materials”.
Although the social media ban on minors under 16 years of age was in place in Australia at the end of 2025, including platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat are on the ban list, such games as Roblox are not currently affected by the ban. According to Villes, she “was shocked by reports that children were exposed to explicit and meaningless user-generated content (including sexual insinuations and suicide material) on the platform”. “More disturbingly, there are persistent reports and concerns that the intent of the mischievous is approaching and seducing children, and that they are actively trying to exploit their curiosity and innocence.” In his letter, Weis wrote, “This is unacceptable, and these issues are of great concern to many Australian parents and guardians.” In the words of Inman Grant, “I welcome the letter of the Minister of Communications and the support of the Australian Government on this important issue, and we will use all available tools to guarantee Internet safety for Australian children.”
The Australian edition of The Guardian recorded “a week-long virtual sexual harassment and violence” in an undercover interview last November. The report states that “when journalists play as an eight-year-old girl, their role is given a sexualized image, subjected to cyberbullying, violent killings, sexual assault, and even defecation — even in a state where parental control has been put in place”. The Guardian reported that Roblox had not responded to the communication from the Australian Minister of Communications. In the meantime, Inman Grant’s department has been asked by Villes for advice on “any short-term measures that may be taken”, including a possible re-examination of Roblox’s “PG” classification and the extension of the Government’s Online Security Act.
Over the past year, Roblox has been updating and increasing the security features of its platform, including the inclusion of “sensitive topic” content labels in its “experiment”. In November 2024, Roblox introduced new protective measures to prevent users under the age of 13 years from using the direct message function of platform chats and to limit the content of messages they can broadcast in games and experiences. Last month, as a further reinforcement of the voluntary age verification introduced last year to “restrict communication between minors and adults”, Roblox began to verify age before access to the chat function.