Roblox has agreed to a $10 million settlement with Nevada and will roll out new child-safety measures across the gaming platform, the state’s attorney general announced Wednesday. Attorney General Aaron Ford said Nevada was preparing to sue over its contention that Roblox lacks basic safeguards to protect minors from predators and exploitation. Instead, the parties reached an agreement, which the Democrat said was formalized in a court filing, Reuters reports. California-based Roblox said in a statement that the deal reflects its “ongoing mission” to lead on online safety and credited talks with Ford and other officials. Almost half the US children under 16 use the platform, per the AP.
Under the settlement, Roblox will direct $10 million over three years to youth programs in Nevada and spend another $2.5 million on an online safety awareness campaign and a law-enforcement liaison position, according to Ford. The company will introduce age verification for all users, using age-estimation tools and government IDs, and monitor behavior to detect false age claims. It will also tighten parental controls, limit whom users under 16 can chat with, and remove encryption from chats involving minors. Roblox said the new features required by Nevada will apply nationwide by early June.
The company is simultaneously defending more than 140 federal lawsuits and separate actions by multiple state attorneys general, accusing it of enabling child sexual exploitation on its platform and failing to adequately warn or protect families. Roblox has denied wrongdoing in those cases. A supervising criminal investigator in Ford’s office said a half-million online predators are pursuing children at any given moment, often on multiple platforms.
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