[Update] October 15, 2024
Update: Guidance on Fear Descriptor [September 16, 2024]
Hi Creators,
This fall, we’ll be making changes to our Experience Guidelines naming and default settings. These changes are intended to update how our youngest users access experiences and to provide parents and users more clarity into the types of content available on Roblox.
Experience Guidelines will be renamed Content Labels and we will no longer label experiences by age. Instead, we’ll label experiences based on the type of content users can expect in an experience.
Why the change?
This change was prompted by user feedback and the recognition that all children develop on different timelines, so labeling experiences based on age does not meet every family’s needs. Knowing that parents also differ when it comes to the type of content they are comfortable with their child engaging with, we hope that this update will give parents more insight into the type of content to expect in an experience so they can make more informed decisions on what is uniquely appropriate for their child.
| Current Naming | Future Naming | Content Description |
|---|---|---|
| All Ages | Minimal | May contain occasional mild violence and/or light unrealistic blood. |
| 9+ | Mild | May contain repeated mild violence, heavy unrealistic blood, mild crude humor, and/or mild fear. |
| 13+ | Moderate | May contain moderate violence, light realistic blood, moderate crude humor, unplayable gambling content, and/or moderate fear. |
| 17+ | Restricted | May contain strong violence, heavy realistic blood, moderate crude humor, romantic themes, unplayable gambling content, the presence of alcohol, strong language, and/or moderate fear. |
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Default content settings for users under the age of 9: By default, users under the age of 9 will only be able to access experiences with a content label of “Minimal” or “Mild.” Parents will be able to use parental controls to let their children access more mature content.
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Descriptors and Questionnaire: We’re updating the terms we use to describe experience labels.
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“Experience Guidelines” will become “Content Labels” – which you will see reflected in the questionnaire you fill out for your experience.
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“Age Guidelines” will now be called “Content Maturity”, and users will continue to be able to customize their access to experiences based on their Content Maturity (renamed from Allowed Experiences) setting under Parental Controls.
We will also add questions to the questionnaire about scary elements that may trigger fear. For more context on descriptors, see here.
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Audience Insights: We’ve added the ability to see what percent of your audience is under 9 years old, to help you better understand the impact these changes will have on your experience(s). You can access this new functionality in Creator Hub under Analytics.
Next Steps
As we know these updates are significant and may affect many creators, we’re sharing this news early to provide visibility into the changes that will be most important for you. It is important to us to provide our community with advance notice, so these changes will not take effect for at least three months from now.
Closer to launch, we will share more specifics on exactly when this change will take effect. When that announcement happens, we will encourage you to take two actions:
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Retake the updated questionnaire with the new questions before the defaults are updated.
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Notify your users of these changes, and let them know that users under 9 will need parental consent to access your experience.
After a certain period of time, if you do not retake the updated questionnaire, your experience will be treated as an experience without a content maturity label and will be unplayable to users under the age of 9 by default. We will share exact timing at a later date, with at least thirty days advance notice.
We hope that these updates will help make Roblox more useful for parents and families, and we are excited to share more information over the coming months.
Thank you.
FAQs (Updated July 17, 2024)
Can I appeal the content maturity label for my experience?
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Your content label and descriptors should accurately represent your experience. To update the content maturity label on your experience, you will need to resubmit the questionnaire to generate a new label. If the content label of your experience is moderated due to being inaccurate, the label will be removed, and you will need to resubmit the questionnaire again.
Experiences with a 17+/Restricted label will retain their existing label to ensure they are accessible only to verified 17+ users.
Will scary avatars be allowed in experiences?
- Scary avatars will continue to be allowed in experiences. Experiences that include scary elements will require a Fear descriptor and will have a content maturity label of either “Mild” or “Moderate.”
Can users who entered an incorrect age at signup correct their age?
- Soon, all users who entered an incorrect age at signup will be allowed to correct their birthdate to change their age. Depending on the age they previously entered, they may need parental consent or ID verification in order to correct their birthdate.
Are creators required to fill out the questionnaire with the new questions related to fear?
- After a certain period of time, if you do not retake the updated questionnaire, your experience will be treated as an experience without a content maturity label, and will be unplayable to users under the age of 9 by default. We will also provide more information closer to that date, and will provide at least thirty days advance notice.
What is Roblox’s policy on gambling content?
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Unplayable gambling content is allowed in Moderate and Restricted experiences. Unplayable gambling content means noninteractive games of chance or luck typically themed around gambling, so people can’t play or bet on the games themselves. For example, an experience is allowed to feature a game of roulette where someone cannot bet or play the game itself.
Unplayable gambling content does not include depictions of, and/or references to, items or activities that are typically associated with gambling (e.g. horse racing, car racing, poker chips), but which are not games of chance or luck. These depictions are not considered to be gambling content and are allowed in all experiences.
What is the difference between mild and moderate fear?
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The severity of the fear in your experience depends on whether your experience includes repeated scary elements or horrifying elements. We will share more details in the next few weeks with specifics about distinguishing scary and horrifying elements.
As a reminder, when answering questions about the severity of fear in your experience, you must answer the questions based on the most mature content a player can possibly encounter in your experience. This means that if all the levels in your experience only include mild fear, but one level includes moderate fear, you should declare moderate fear.
What is the difference between mild and moderate violence?
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The intensity of the violence in your experience depends on the consequence of that violence. If the consequence to the victim is unrealistic (e.g. bodies disappear or light up the moment they are injured) the violence is considered Mild. If the consequence to the victim is realistic (e.g., bodies collapse to the ground or realistic blood is shown coming from the wound the moment they are injured) as well as non-graphic, the violence is considered Moderate.
When answering questions about the intensity of violence in your experience, you must answer the questions based on the most mature/extreme content a player can possibly encounter in your experience (e.g. all the levels in your experience only include mild violence except for one level that includes moderate violence, you should declare moderate violence).
What happens to the existing <9 audience if the Content Rating changes to 9+ (Mild)? Do they lose their game progress?
- After this change, users under the age of 9 will continue to be able to access Mild experiences and will lose access to Moderate experiences. If a parent provides permission through parental controls, the user will be able to regain access. Users will not lose their in-experience progress.
How is the age breakdown in Analytics determined?
- Ages displayed in Analytics are based on self-reported user birthdates. When a user verifies their age using a government ID, their birthday is also updated in Settings. Individual user birthdays are not visible to developers in Analytics or to other Roblox users.
What is Roblox’s policy regarding romantic themes?
- We prohibit content that depicts sexual activity or seeks real-world romantic relationships in all experiences. However, 17+ experiences may contain non-sexual expressions of love and affection and may reference romantic themes and topics. Visit our Community Standards for more information about our Romantic and Sexual Content policy and visit our Roblox 17+ Policy Standards for more specific information about these 17+ experiences for ID verified users.
Clarity is always important especially if it’s done in advance for stuff like this.
