Roblox clamps down on chats and age checks as legal pressure builds

Roblox is facing mounting legal pressure over child safety failures, settling with Alabama ($12.2M), West Virginia ($11M), and Nevada ($12M) in a single week — totaling over $35M. As part of the settlements, Roblox must implement mandatory age verification via facial estimation or government ID starting May 1, restrict adult-minor communications, and launch a tiered account system in June splitting users into Kids (5–8), Select (9–15), and standard (16+) tiers. Seven more states including Texas and Florida have active lawsuits, and nearly 80 federal suits are pending in California. Critics note that existing age-check technology has already misclassified users, and Roblox's Persona verification tool was found to be running facial recognition against watchlists beyond its stated purpose.