Roblox exec says ticking a box for age verification is ‘not enough anymore’

Roblox’s vice president of information merchandise policy, Eliza Jacobs, told NBC News that Roblox is “optimistic” that its caller facial property estimation tech will “continue to get better,” saying, “Ticking a container to opportunity you’re 13 aliases older, it’s not capable anymore.” NBC invited a group of kids to effort retired Roblox’s caller video selfie property cheque process, but they weren’t capable to get astir it pinch a clone mustache. Jacobs claims Roblox’s facial property estimates tin typically onshore “within 1.4 years of a child’s nonstop age.”

Roblox announced plans successful April to statesman utilizing its video selfie property estimation tech to sort players into property brackets. Users nether 16 and nether 9 are now sorted into Roblox Select and Kids accounts, respectively, pinch restricted entree to chat and definite types of games. Players tin besides usage a authorities ID to verify their age, aliases parents tin manually group their child’s property group.

In April, Roblox reported a drop successful regular users aft rolling retired property checks. However, Jacobs stood by the platform’s property verification measures, saying, “We person a semipermanent imagination of information and civility connected the level that we’re building towards that we judge in.” She added, “It’s OK if immoderate group are not ever happy astir that.”