What is Roblox? Parents’ guide to playing safely

Roblox is popular among children worldwide, even though it is an odd-looking and often confusing platform (for parents at least).

Like Minecraft before it, its attraction to youngsters is partly because mum and dad don’t get it. That makes it all the more exciting but can also lead to fears over its safety. After all, much of Roblox is played online.

How it works

Roblox is an online videos games platform where most content is user-generated. That is, users can create their own games or experiences for the public using Roblox Studio. Users can create and publish games to the community using simple tools. And that means they can try ideas that wouldn’t get funded for a commercial release.

Children worldwide can then play these games, often online together, through a smartphone, video games console, tablet or personal computer like a laptop.

Types of Roblox games

Games like Prison Escape, Work at a Pizza Place, SharkBite or Natural Disaster Survival offer a playful way to experience adult-like scenarios in quick competitive rounds played socially.

Roblox games reflect the sort of imaginative play you often find in the playground. One child has an idea about a game to play, others join him or her, and the rules slowly change as the group decides how to have fun together. Creators can quickly update and adjust their games with Roblox Studio to match the demands of the huge playing community.

This ever-changing and expanding library of games is a big part of why so many are playing Roblox. Combine this with the millions of other players to compete against in challenges and you have the perfect recipe for youngsters to enjoy.

However, as with any online game, there are some risks to be aware of.

Because the content on Roblox is user-generated, it doesn’t fall under the same rigorous age ratings as content made by commercial companies.

However, PEGI has altered their rating from PEGI 7 to Parental Guidance Recommended (PEGI !) because of the amount of user-generated content.

Roblox includes Content Maturity Labels on all content on the platform. These labels are:

• Minimal: May contain occasional mild violence, light unrealistic blood and/or occasional mild fear.
• Mild: May contain repeated mild violence, heavy unrealistic blood, mild crude humour and/or repeated mild fear.
• Moderate: May contain moderate violence, light realistic blood, moderate crude humour, unplayable gambling content and/or moderate fear.
• Restricted: May contain strong violence, heavy realistic blood, moderate crude humour, romantic themes, unplayable gambling content, the presence of alcohol, strong language and/or moderate fear. These experiences are only available to 17+ users who verified their ages by completing ID verification.

Roblox filters and checks the games being created both for inappropriate images and profanity. If you or your child sees content which is in the wrong category, make sure you report it.

Hopefully, that should clear up exactly what Roblox is and how to keep your kids safe while playing it. The final thing to mention is that the slew of tweets, Facebook posts, emails, and school gate chatter about police warnings on nudity and stranger danger in the game didn’t originate from Kent Police as has been widely reported.

The real danger here is scaring parents into banning the game and closing down the opportunity for healthy and helpful conversations about appropriate behaviour online. As ever the best way to mitigate any of these risks in your family is to start playing Roblox together and keep devices and consoles in shared family spaces.

Talking to strangers

Being an online game means that players in Roblox can interact and communicate with each other in various ways. This can be via voice or written text once friend requests have been made.

While parents might worry about children talking to strangers, it’s important to remember that most strangers are not predators. However, some strangers might target your child if they seem vulnerable.

Make sure your child understands that:

• They should never share personal information like their address, school or anything else (even if the person says they live in a different country);
• Some people are not who they say they are, so it’s better to be cautious;
• They can come to you if they have any questions or concerns (and you will respond calmly and without judgement);
• There are signs that someone might be targeting them for grooming, scams or other issues;
• They can and should make use of the in-game reporting and blocking features if someone makes them uncomfortable.

Inappropriate content

An April 2025 report from Revealing Reality highlighted “suggestive behaviours” among other concerns. The research team created Roblox accounts for 5-, 9-, 10-, 13- and 42-year-olds to test the interactions of different users based on their age.

Exploring as the 10-year-old, the team was able to access “highly suggestive” spaces. These included experiences featuring hotels with private rooms and characters dressed in “sexually suggestive outfits.” Revealing Reality noted that a 10-year-old was easily able to “observe and participate in conversations” that were often adult in nature.

One experience designed like a night club was called ‘Boys and Girls Club Roleplay’. It had a Content Maturity Level of ‘Mild’ despite the “strong sexual undertones” and accessibility for children. Users received no warning about the material before entering the experience. Following the launch of the report, the experience is no longer available.

Experiences and games on Roblox should be appropriate for children if rated ‘Mild’. If you don’t believe an experience is appropriate for the rating it has, make sure you report it and block it using built-in parental controls. Encourage your child to also report such experiences.

Loot boxes and gambling

Loot boxes are common in many online video games. They let users unlock items and rewards usually for purchase at random. However, the rarity of the items can differ from game to game. While the term comes from box-shaped items, these interactions come in many forms. For example, a user could toss a coin into a fountain and receive a random virtual item that way.

In Roblox, the Terms of Use state that Creators who offer random virtual items (i.e. loot boxes) for payment must state the odds of each type of item a user might receive. But because users don’t know which item they will actually receive, some have compared loot boxes to gambling.

Some Creators make gambling-themed games as well. However, users cannot win real money from these games. Instead, they earn Robux. If they can earn items, the same rules above apply  — users must clearly identify the odds of winning each item.

In August 2024, Roblox announced that games or experiences which include paid random items would be restricted for UK users under the age of 18.

Other in-game purchases

Although the Roblox is a free game to play, users are incentivised to make purchases in the game with real money. Kids can purchase Robux for cash which is then spent on equipment and outfits in the games.

Ensure that you are tracking and password-protecting credit cards on your systems, so no unanticipated purchases are made. It’s worth talking to your child about this commercial aspect of the game before they play. You can also set up parental controls in Roblox to set spending restrictions.

All the games work fine without additional content, but at the same time will signpost players to benefits of spending money. This is how gamemakers make a profit from their creations made in Roblox Studio.

In addition to setting broadband and device controls, Roblox has built-in parental controls you can set. By setting up a parent account, you’ll get a better overview of your child’s activity.

With Roblox parental controls, you can:

• set the Content Maturity Level that your child can access;
• block specific experiences that are within their Level but you don’t want them accessing;
• set screen time restrictions and get an overview of their time on Roblox;
• limit who they can contact and who can contact them, including adding new Friends;
• turn on spending restrictions;
• report users; and
• manage more features related to children’s privacy and safety.

To set children up for safety on Roblox, it’s important to ensure their account reflects their real age. Roblox parental controls work best for under-13s.

It’s important to note that users can quickly create Roblox accounts without an email, and some children might do this to get around parental controls. That’s why it’s so important to also involve them in online safety and make decisions together wherever possible.

Additional supervision features

Roblox has several other ways to monitor account activity beyond parental controls. While logged into your child’s account, you can view the following histories, though some are only viewable in a web browser.

• Direct and small group chat. You can see individual chat histories. This feature is limited to Friends, and Friends of Friends.
• Private message history
• Friends and Followers
• Virtual item purchase and trade history
• Creations such as games, items, sounds, ads, etc.
• Recently played games

A couple of years ago, the free game came to the Xbox. How the parental controls work on the Xbox is slightly different from a PC, Mac, tablet or through mobile gaming.

Although the Xbox has controls for friend requests, this doesn’t restrict those in Roblox as they are considered a different type of “in-game” friend. However, the Microsoft terms of service for game makers means that players can’t make new friends while playing on Xbox. They will only see friends already made on the PC, Mac, or tablet.

Additionally, you can further limit the interactions with other players on the Xbox as follows:

• Start Roblox
• Select the Account Settings page
• Identify the Linked Account
• Apply restrictions via roblox.com for this account.

Toggle on/off Cross-Platform Gameplay to limit who your children can play with (Note: Currently Roblox doesn’t support cross-platform messaging, so Xbox players can’t message players on other platforms)

The metaverse is becoming more popular with the work from Meta and platforms like Roblox. It’s essentially a vision where users will be able to communicate, interact, play, shop and more all in one place. This may even include seamlessly transitioning from one platform to the next.

Roblox fits well into this idea because users are able to participate in games, concerts and more all within the platform. They create content for each other, which is a large idea for the metaverse. It was founded on the idea of “human co-experience: people doing things together in synchronous 3D spaces.” In this way, it seems a big part of the metaverse.

Roblox's role in the metaverse

Read this article from Roblox.