[Update] July 22, 2025
Hey Creators,
We are dedicated to supporting experiences that are both deeply engaging and empowering for players of all ages, while continuously innovating how all users connect and interact. This month, we’re rolling out important updates to how users connect and communicate and announcing an expansion of our safety platform.
We’re excited to introduce:
- Trusted Connections: We’re empowering users 13 and older to connect and chat more freely with people they know and trust, fostering positive interactions. We’re also introducing a new standard for communication between teens and users 18+.
- Age Estimation: We’re investing in age estimation technology to help confirm users’ ages. At launch, Age Estimation will unlock Trusted Connections.
- Privacy Tools: To help promote their well-being, Roblox users will now have more ways to manage notifications, screen time, and privacy. This functionality will be available to all, but designed with teens in mind.
- Insights for Parents of Teens: We’re offering parents of teens new tools for transparency into their teen’s Roblox experience, such as spend notifications, Connections and Trusted Connections insights, and screen time stats. This complements existing parental tools for users under 13.
Evolving How Users Connect
To better reflect the diverse and evolving ways users interact on Roblox, we’re renaming “Friends” to Connections across the platform. This new terminology more accurately encompasses the broad spectrum of valuable interactions — from quick team-ups to long-term collaborations or joining large communities — that flourish on Roblox. This update lets you define how you interact with others, promoting clearer boundaries and more respectful exchanges. It’s ideal for those you game with regularly but don’t consider close friends. Ultimately, this helps us continue leading on safety by proactively shaping a clearer, more secure, and positive social experience for everyone on Roblox.
What this means for your experiences
This change won’t cause any breaking changes to the APIs you’re currently using for friend-related functionalities. If you’ve built custom UI or tools in your experiences that reference “Friends”, we recommend updating these references to “Connections” to align with our new terminology.
Introducing Trusted Connections
We’re introducing Trusted Connections for eligible users 13 and older. Trusted Connections can be unlocked through Age Estimation, and users who are connected through Trusted Connections can communicate more openly in chat and voice with people they know and trust. This additional freedom to chat more openly with trusted connections reduces the incentive for teens to move interactions off platform, where they may be exposed to greater risk.
At launch Trusted Connections who have their age confirmed will have access to:
- Party Voice: Experience real-time voice communication within a Party for a more immersive and interactive experience. Imagine users seamlessly coordinating strategies in your game, calling out plays, or simply chatting while exploring your world. Learn how to implement the Party API here.
- Chat Without Filters: This chat experience allows for more open and engaging conversations where the Roblox text filter won’t automatically block portions of messages. This means more natural and direct communication for your users with their Trusted Connections in Party Chat. (Note: Some content, like non-Roblox URLs, may still be restricted, and Community Standards always apply.)
Over time, we’ll bring new ways to share, communicate, and interact with Trusted Connections.
Users younger than 13 will not have access to Trusted Connections, and, unlike many other platforms, we continue to block the sharing of any personal information while filtering inappropriate content and monitoring all communication. In addition, Roblox does not support sharing photos or videos in chat regardless of age.
How Age Estimation Works with Trusted Connections
Users can take a quick selfie-style video to estimate their age. This helps us ensure developmentally appropriate features are enabled for the right users, providing a more tailored and trusted experience for everyone. Users who ID verify or have previously ID verified will also get access to features based on their ID verified age. Age estimation is currently powered by our partner Persona, which has been extensively tested and certified by third-parties for accuracy, reliability, and safety.
Age estimation technology provides an approximate age. To ensure the most appropriate features and out of an abundance of caution, Roblox will always consider the youngest estimated age.
Age Appropriate Feature Access:
- Users under 13: cannot add Trusted Connections.
- Users 13-17: can add Trusted Connections via Contact Importer (from phone contacts) or QR Code Scan, with more options coming soon.
- Users 18+: If two age-checked 18+ users are in a 1:1 chat, their conversation automatically upgrades to expressive chat features.
- To add a 13-17 year old as a Trusted Connection, 18+ users must use real-life channels like Contact Importer or QR Code scanning, adding an extra layer of safety and parental oversight.
What this means for your experiences
With the introduction of Trusted Connections, more users interacting in your experiences may now have access to these richer communication tools. Think about how your game mechanics can benefit from users being able to speak openly or or engage in less filtered text chat with their Trusted Connections. This can lead to more complex cooperative gameplay, richer role-playing scenarios, and overall more organic social interactions.
Enhanced Safety for Everyone on Roblox
Expanding Parental Features for All Ages
Last year, we introduced parental controls for parents of children 13 and under. Now, for the first time, we’re offering parents a suite of tools for transparency into their child’s experience on Roblox. We know that parents are often juggling busy schedules, which is why we’ve designed these new features to provide clear, at-a-glance insights that help them gain a deeper understanding of their teen’s Roblox experience.
Parents can now link a Roblox account to their teen’s account to gain access to:
- Trusted Connections and Connection Insights: Parents can view who their teen is connected to, both as Connections and Trusted Connections.
- Screen-Time Insights: Parents can now see how much time their teen spends on Roblox and in which experiences.
- Spending Notifications: Parents can now choose to receive notifications whenever their teen makes a certain transaction on Roblox or receive high-spending alerts.
Creating Healthy Digital Habits
Guided by insights from you and everyone on Roblox, including our Teen Council, we’re introducing a new suite of privacy and well-being tools designed to empower users to confidently manage their digital lives.
- Online Status Controls: Users can decide who sees whether they’re online: just their Connections, their followers, no one, or everyone on Roblox.
- Do Not Disturb Mode: Users can now set a window during which push notifications from Roblox are silenced to help with focus or sleep.
- Screen-Time Insights and Controls: Teens can now see how long they are spending on Roblox and where they are spending the most time.
What this means for your experiences
As we announced in April, the new online status controls will affect what’s returned by the GetFriendsOnline API; read this post to learn more about how to migrate to PromptGameInvite to avoid any referral system you’ve built being affected by this change.
We know how important safety, well-being and connection is to creators and everyone on Roblox; it’s important to us too and foundational to everything we do. These tools and settings are part of our efforts to make sure everyone has the right controls to keep their time on Roblox positive, safe, and appropriate for their age.
Thank you for your feedback, suggestions, and keeping your experiences safe for everyone.
Roblox User and Safety Teams
1. Powered by Persona
