Online Gaming Safety: 9 in 10 Gamers Wouldnt Let Their Kid Play

At what age should I allow my child to play games online? There are different ways to enhance and manage your and your family’s experience when playing games online. On March 4, 2026, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers filed a lawsuit against Roblox, accusing the platform of becoming a “playground” for child predators and misleading parents and guardians about the safety precautions taken on the platform. In April 2025, Florida attorney general James Uthmeier sent a subpoena to Roblox about uses of the platform by users age 16 and under as well as the platform’s protections for children against “mature content”.
Additionally, Roblox has been criticized for its use of microtransactions, advergames, and brand ambassadors, as well as for the alleged financial exploitation of child game developers. Some users have taken to online vigilantism to catch potential child predators; Roblox Corporation has faced significant controversy after taking legal action against some of these users. Child exploitation groups such as 764 and CVLT have operated on Roblox to groom children, and at least 30 people have been arrested since 2018 in the United States for abducting or sexually abusing children they had groomed on the platform.

• In addition, the Spanish Civil Guard also issued a statement saying that reports of sex offenders using Roblox to extort minors were becoming much more frequent in Spain, where they recorded cases of several minors in Murcia who had begun to interact and maintain direct contact with pedophiles in southern Spain.
• There are different ways to enhance and manage your and your family’s experience when playing games online.
• At what age should I allow my child to play games online?
• On March 4, 2026, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers filed a lawsuit against Roblox, accusing the platform of becoming a “playground” for child predators and misleading parents and guardians about the safety precautions taken on the platform.
• On November 18, 2025, Roblox announced that all forms of in-game chat and experiences rated “18+” on the platform would be locked behind an age verification system.
• Moderating images, voice, and video content in real time requires a different architecture than batch- or queue-based moderation systems.

Statements like this are important – they set the tone from the top that toxic behavior is not welcome on major platforms. Leading figures in gaming have started to openly acknowledge this responsibility. Players aren’t asking for censorship, they’re asking for safety. For platform owners, this is yet another signal that cleaning up online spaces isn’t just a moral duty – it’s necessary to secure the trust of families and the market’s longevity. The gaming industry has long focused on cultivating the next generation of fans, but toxicity is blocking the on-ramp. If most adults wouldn’t let their kids into your online ecosystem, you’re seeding a future audience problem.
Teens who pass the age test would be able to add anyone aged 13 through 17 as a trusted connection without restriction, though users over 18 years old would need to use a QR code or phone number to add verified teen users. In October 2020, the Roblox Corporation reported employing approximately 1,600 full-time employees dedicated to content moderation. In-game mechanics for self-expression such as user avatars, item decorations, and spray paint tools were also identified as being used to spread extremist and hateful imagery. One high-profile group in Roblox, called “The Senate and People of Rome”, outlawed “race-mixing, feminism” and homosexuality, while also requiring another player, who was Jewish, to wear a “Judea tunic or be arrested on sight”. Investigative journalism YouTube channel People Make Games accused the platform of “exploiting” younger game developers by promising them large amounts of money from creating games, only to apply high revenue cuts and leaving creators with little to no income. In April 2022, Truth in Advertising filed a complaint against Roblox with the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising, mainly failing to disclose when advertising is present, such as with advergames and brand ambassadors.
In September 2025, Núcleo Jornalismo launched an investigation into Roblox content aimed at children in Brazil with the support of academics and researchers from various universities in São Paulo. Users have been documented evading Roblox content and chat moderation to perform sexual content by taking activity offsite to other social media platforms, especially Discord. The European video game content rating system PEGI classifies the game as “parental guidance recommended”, while prior to September 2022 it classified the game as “suitable for 7 years and over”.

Moderation and safety updates

That month, Iraq also banned the game, citing child safety and its incompatibility with “social values and traditions”. The minister emphasized that he had entered into talks with Roblox representatives in Southeast Asia and that one of the main topics of conversation was the stabbing incident that occurred in Johor that same month and how the platform has been hosting inappropriate games for minors in Malaysia. During the same period, Fahmi Fadzil, Malaysia’s communications minister, had previously confirmed to local media in October that he had noticed the platform was being used to promote violence among minors and personally banned his children from using it. In August 2025, Indonesia requested that Roblox strengthen its chat filters to remove harmful content and enhance child safety, warning that failure to comply could result in a ban. Shapak also pointed out that the platform had highly addictive elements marketed to minors, which could expose them to sexual or violent material at an early age and create certain dependencies to electronic devices. These decisions were made by the Australian government after receiving several reports of child grooming, where it was noted that the security measures imposed by the platform were not sufficient to protect minors.
She also requested that the game’s PG rating be reviewed again by the Australian Classification Board, where it was noted that the platform hosted games intended for adults. The system requires users to either upload an ID to verify their exact age or perform a facial scan via Persona to place a person into an estimated age group. On November 18, 2025, Roblox announced that all forms of in-game chat and experiences rated “18+” on the platform would be locked behind an age verification system. In October 2025, Roblox planned revenue changes in order cubet to expand child safety and moderation which caused the stock of the company to fall by 15 percent, though the company stated they expect a rising third quarter capital after the changes are made.
Nearly 59% of players mute or block toxic users, 30% actively avoid certain communities, and 28% quit mid-game. Alarmingly, more than half (52%) of women said they stopped playing games because of harassment or toxic communities. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s 2023 report, 76% of adult gamers reported similar harassment experiences. Our survey revealed that nearly 78% of gamers have experienced some form of harassment online. Our research highlights gamers’ critical challenges and demonstrates why gaming platforms need stronger moderation efforts. We surveyed 2,000 American gamers aged to understand how toxicity impacts gaming.
Specifically, they added new parental controls options that would block direct messaging to children outside of games, by default automatically blocking of direct messages in and outside of experiences to users under 13. In 2024, “social hangout” games were restricted to players over 13 years old, and the platform implemented parental controls automatically blocking direct messages to users under 13. The safety of children on Roblox, a multiplayer game platform managed by the American company Roblox Corporation, has been the subject of much debate and controversy. That means almost 8 in 10 gamers regularly encounter insults, identity-based harassment, unwanted sexual attention, threats, or offensive content like usernames and player skins.

What GameSafe Covers?

Following the public backlash, senior Australian government officials called meetings with Roblox, where they indicated that if the company is unable to neutralize cases of child sexual abuse on its platform, it could face fines of A$49.5 million. In September, Roblox announced it will collaborate with International Age Rating Coalition to assign age ratings to individual games, complementing Roblox’s own ratings. Players linked with a trusted connection would have chat filters removed between each other, specifically in hopes that users would be less likely to leave Roblox for platforms they did not moderate, but could only be accessed after using an AI-based age verification system using facial recognition. They also reimplemented “experience guidelines” as “content labels” that parents could use with parental controls settings to regulate the content their child was allowed to see. On November 18, 2024, Roblox announced that they would be implementing new safety features for children under 13 set to take effect in the first quarter of 2025. Developers would also need to designate their games as meant for users under 13, otherwise their games would no longer be accessible to those users.

The Best Way To Protect Online Play

A good gamertag should be memorable but not personally identifiable. Encourage Anonymity by Limiting Personal Information Take time to set these limits, ensuring that you have control over what’s purchased and who can connect with your child. Protect all gaming devices with reliable antivirus software to help guard against potential malware from suspicious downloads or phishing scams.
“GameSafe is a must-have for any parent with gaming kids.” Dating app users are frustrated with in-app messaging. We’re Besedo and we provide content moderation tools and services to companies all over the world. Healthy communities drive deeper engagement, session length, and, yes, monetization, while toxic communities stifle all of the above. “You need compute-efficient transformer models, smart latency management, and retraining pipelines that minimize false positives and negatives in an ever-changing context.”
GameSafe monitors your child’s game chats, alerting you to threats in real-time. The new Besedo report highlights the effects of fraud and poor content quality on online marketplaces. Every unchecked bigoted rant or sexist attack might drive away dozens of other players, shrinking the total user pool and revenue potential in the long run. Players spend 54% more on games they perceive as safe and non-toxic. We’ve built solutions that help platforms detect and prevent this kind of content before it becomes problematic.” User-generated content is a huge competitive advantage.
The days of a hands-off approach (“we just make the game, players can police themselves”) are over – if they ever truly existed. This phenomenon is echoed in industry-wide research, which states that 7 out of 10 gamers have avoided playing at least one game due to the game’s toxic reputation or community. This means a game studio could literally lose half of its female players due to an unsafe environment. Many gamers adapt by muting voice chats, avoiding random matchmaking, or playing only with friends. In other words, abuse has become expected – even “normal” – in many game communities, a status quo that poses serious consequences for players and the industry. As the Anti-Defamation League grimly noted, “normalized harassment and desensitization to hate frame the reality” of online gaming today.

At Electronic Arts, we want to empower our players and parents to make informed decisions about gameplay.

And one cannot upsell content to players who have already left. Moderating images, voice, and video content in real time requires a different architecture than batch- or queue-based moderation systems. According to Apostolos Georgakis, our CTO at Besedo, real-time, AI-driven content moderation combined with strong policy enforcement is the robust solution online gaming desperately needs. The end goal isn’t to play nanny or ruin the fun – it’s to cultivate communities where all players can have fun without fear of harassment.

In January 2026, Kazakh MP Unzila Shapak proposed that the Kazakh government take action regarding Roblox’s operations in the country, citing problems such as pedophilia and the presence of scammers requesting personal information from minors as being a problem. Subsequently, the General Directorate of Internal Affairs of the City of Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan issued a statement recommending that parents restrict minors’ access to the platform. Additionally, it was indicated that the platform was originally excluded from the original Online Safety Act that banned social media for minors, but following the reports, it was decided to implement protocols for platforms such as Roblox, to be applied from March 2026.

Report: How Dating App Chats Are Driving Users Away

Throughout the 2020s, the cyber police divisions of several Mexican states have reported numerous cases of sexual harassment of minors through Roblox, including the federal government of Chihuahua, which from 2021 to 2025 reported an increase in cases of grooming using the platform. In December 2025, the Moroccan government took the first steps to moderate the platform and other online games after repeated warnings from several members of parliament who voiced their concern that the platform could be a danger to minors such as Fatima Zahra Afif. In October 2025, the Lebanese Association for Statistics, Training, and Development urged the Lebanese government to ban the video game following reports that 30% of minors in the country could be exposed to inappropriate content. This announcement was met with major backlash from parents, creators, safety advocates, and many online communities who feared it would put children at a greater risk. A 2023 study by researchers from Pennsylvania State University analyzing discussion among users of the community noted that roleplaying games aligned with prejudiced or extremist values seemed to hide or only imply their values to players, occurrences of which usually took place in military roleplaying games.

• Because such games are quickly moderated, these communities often rely on Discord servers, a third-party chat app, to alert their members when a new sex game appears.
• You can also choose to watch the video on YouTube.
• Robux can be used to purchase virtual items that the player can use on their virtual character (or “avatar”) on the platform, or access experiences that require payment.
• Court documents show that the lawsuit was settled after Simon agreed to pay the Roblox Corporation $150,000 and a permanent ban from the game, notably not establishing a legal precedent for IP bans from the platform.
• On December 13, 2021, the YouTube channel People Make Games released a video featuring an interview with an anonymous individual who maintained to be a victim of sexting with a 24-year-old Roblox game developer, who created the Sonic the Hedgehog fangame Sonic Eclipse Online, when she was 12.
• Some users have taken to online vigilantism to catch potential child predators; Roblox Corporation has faced significant controversy after taking legal action against some of these users.

The platform is made to appeal to a family-friendly audience, and has been described as a massively multiplayer online game (MMO). The games featured on Roblox vary in genre, from role-playing games to ones centered around escaping prison, among others. Games can be created by any user through the platform’s game engine, Roblox Studio, and then be shared to and played by other players.