As a Roblox developer, it is currently impossible to develop games made for older audiences (violence, blood, political, etc) without it being taken down.
As obvious as it is, although players can lie about their age. Parents can’t really say anything other than “oh”. If your child sets their age over +13, it’s because they’re not watching over their child. Which in the end is completely their fault. But I still feel like a +13 option would be great, considering that with the new experimental mode update, games without FE are +13.
It would improve development in the long run, allowing developers to make more gore based games, or horror games, something that many big game dev companies flourish off of. Considering that ROBLOX is a development platform, it should go without say that the developer should be able to make whatever they want to an extent, “child friendly” or not. Not having their game taken down for blood, violence, or for having guns in it. Especially when the top games are based around jail breaking, murdering, and more. This would allow developers more freedom and help break the barrier between under 13 an +13, something that is much needed.
You just answered to this suggestion yourself. This is just one of the many reasons why Roblox games are all meant to be for anyone who is eligible for an account on the platform.
As for “child-friendly” games, developers aren’t the people who get to decide if their game is safe for certain audiences (see rating systems such as PEGI or ESRB). This means that, if anything, Roblox staff would have to review each game individually to give it an age rating, and even they aren’t properly equipped to do that.
Explain the fact that with the new experimental mode update, they allow only 13+ users to play non filtering games when players can easily lie about their age.
It’s the same concept.
It’s literally just making it so that the game doesn’t have to be non filtered to be 13+ only.
The difference is that the provided example is an increase in age security from what was previously in place. Allowing certain content to users who say they’re 13+ would be a decrease in age security. You’re making the wrong justifications, but I agree that it would be nice to limit age groups to be able to add content that’s actually safe but highly-rated because of overprotective parents (e.g. wine without depicting getting drunk – every medieval show/game I watched/played as a kid hat it)
The problem I think we’d run into is not even users who already lied about their age, but out of game discussion. Do the players who were just playing my game have to go off-site to tell each other how to complete the wine quest? What happens when someone says something on accident that gets past the filter? What happens when a user hears good things about a game and creates a 13+ account specifically to play the game?
I think you need to touch up a bit on how rating systems work. For the most part, it is the developer who chooses, provided they answer honestly. The ESRB/Rating system for the most part is automated, for apps atleast. You fill out a questionnaire and based on what you filled out, it gives you a rating for your app.
I mean, I feel like a lot of users will create a 13+ account just to have the less restrictive filter.
I do agree with this, the age restrictions do prevent us from being completely creative, adding blood and gore details to our games. But like stated - people lie about their ages which allows them to bypass being able to message other users etc, so of course they’ll do the same. If anything it’ll increase and encourage others to lie about their age, and only Roblox is responsible for that unfortunately. I assume you know about the reports about Roblox on the whole regarding the chat system, imagine what parents would say about this. If Roblox were able to support this and be equipped for the result, then I completely back this up.
ESRB states that if the rating is inaccurate or just wrong, the rating may be adjusted or the game can be taken down.
On Roblox, this translates to moderators reviewing places just for their age rating.
Roblox games are meant to be accessible for everyone. This platform was never meant to be divided into age groups (excluding filtering enabled, but that’s a separate security concern).
This would most likely happen after someone reports it, I highly doubt they are actively searching for apps/games/etc to review randomly without it being reported.