Roblox settles with Alabama, West Virginia, agrees to age checks for users under 16

Social gaming platform Roblox is settling its accounts. Having settled with the State of Nevada for $12.5 million over lawsuits challenging its online safety claims, the company has now cut deals with Alabama and West Virginia, with similar payouts – and similar age assurance requirements.

The West Virginia deal will see Roblox pay about $11 million to the state over several years. Some $4 million of that will fund a dedicated West Virginia safety specialist, child safety workshops for parents and children and an awareness campaign for parents.

​Alabama gets $12.2 million, which, according to Reuters, will be used to fund school resource officers across the state. If Roblox breaches the terms of the Alabama settlement within four years, the state could snag an additional $5 ⁠million.

WV Metro News quotes West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, who says Roblox has “agreed to change the totality of their platform.” He then describes an “age verification” system that is in fact facial age estimation, which Roblox has deployed in other jurisdictions, using technology from Persona, to regulate access to its chat feature.

Under the terms of the settlement, the platform will check the age of all users before granting chat access, block all chat until age assurance is complete, restrict adults from contacting users under 16 except through verified trusted contacts, alert minors the first time they enter a private chat, and default all under-16 and unverified users to safe content mode.

Alabama’s deal comes with similar terms. The Alabama Reflector quotes attorney general Steve Marshall, who says “we have now established a framework that other states can and should use.”

New system features three levels of access

Roblox appears to be cutting its losses, as it ​faces more than 140 ⁠lawsuits in U.S. federal court accusing the company of knowingly facilitating child sexual exploitation. State attorneys general in Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and Florida have also sued the company over claims that it failed to protect children from online harm.

The company’s tab stands at $35.8 million. Additional settlements could push it up into the hundreds of millions.

In tandem with the settlements, Roblox has introduced an update to age-based accounts and expanded parental controls for users under 16. The system differentiates Roblox Kids accounts (for 5-9 year olds), Roblox Select (for 9-15 year olds) and standard Roblox accounts for users 16 and up.

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometric age estimation  |  children  |  lawsuits  |  Roblox  |  United States