Updates to Our Maturity & Compliance Questionnaire

Updates Announcements
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I’m glad this is limited to parental controls, but there are a lot of potential cases I can imagine where this descriptor would operate under a blurred line of interpretation. A lot of these topics (notably vaccination policies) have a large amount of people that flat out disagree with it being even labelled as a sensitive topic.

A topic that may seem trivial to one person could be seen as a very sensitive topic to another - and it begs the question. Who is making the decision to categorize specific topics as sensitive? I feel this method will always be subject to bias, especially when the two sides of each topic can very easily disagree with each other. Not to mention, games are either vaguely labelled as containing sensitive topics or not containing sensitive topics. It doesn’t matter how sensitive a topic it is, it is still lumped in with all the others and barred by default to users under 13.

Also, what counts as “primarily themed?” For example, how would LGBTQ+ be handled? I can imagine a singular pride flag decal wouldn’t count as being the primary theme of a game. But what would happen if a game’s protagonist identified as LGBTQ+? If it’s just a part of the character but isn’t explicitly mentioned in the game, I can agree with that not being the primary theme, but what if the character openly discusses this fact? What if the character has a conflict based around their identity? At what point does it cross over to being the “primary theme” of the game?

This update foregoes a lot of nuance to a bunch of topics in exchange for an admittedly crude “yes/no” system. I feel as if a tagging system for the game questionnaire would work better (giving parents the ability to manually filter out games with certain tags as they deem necessary).

I’d also just generally like to know; who draws the lines? How are these decided upon aside from just looking at current global issues? The interpretation of such issues can vary wildly.

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That very uncertainty you raise is part of Roblox’s definition of sensitive, I think. It’s the disagreement that makes it sensitive.

+1 to this idea

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Yeah, but that is one of the main concerns I raise in my post. Some people may dismiss these topics whilst others may categorize it is a sensitive topic.

Some people think vaccine policies are not debatable, and probably wouldn’t see it as a sensitive topic at all. Yet, here, it is explicitly labelled by Roblox to be one. What’s to say something like Flat Earth couldn’t be categorized as a sensitive topic? It meets the criteria (to an extent) of having polarizing viewpoints and invoking a strong emotional response.

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Yeah. My thought process about Flat Earth was that the number of people for whom it matters is so small that it doesn’t count as a sensitive topic. 0.01% vs 99.99% kinda thing. If those percentages became more balanced, I think Roblox would be justified in classifying it as a sensitive topic, even though I think Flat Earth is stupid. If Roblox didn’t do that, then this policy would have lost its neutrality and I wouldn’t support it.

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I actually quite agree with this change in principle. It’s no secret that the kind of content that kids are able to access on the internet can be less than savory, of many types and of varying degrees of severity. For a platform like Roblox where you can have content of a huge variety of types, I think giving the ability for parents to more easily understand what it is they’re signing their kids up for isn’t just important, it’s necessary.

However, I do have a big problem, the “Sensitive Content” descriptor is far, far too vague.

A parent is, and should be, the guardian and caretaker of their child and they should be allowed to make whatever decision they feel necessary to care for their child properly, this extends to how a parent wishes to enable their child’s social development. The problem with this sensitive content label is that there’s no nuance, there’s no specifics, it’s overly vague and does not help parents, or developers for that matter, to assess the content accessible on the platform or on a per experience basis. In more simple terms, lumping everything here under a singular “sensitive content” category is ineffective and unhelpful to the end users. There needs to be a subtype system so that developers can properly tag the nature of the sensitive content, and parents need to be able to enable/disable experience access based on these specific tags.

This may sound more difficult for parents, but think about this for a second, if you see a “Sensitive Content” descriptor, what do you immediately think about? It’s tricky, there’s many, many things in the world that are potentially sensitive, in my mind, what is sensitive to me is not going to be what is sensitive to everyone. To elaborate, if I am a parent, I am a grown adult, so when I think of sensitive content, I may immediately think of something that is much different than what Roblox is describing, and flat out block all experiences with this descriptor.

By adding subtypes, people could more immediately understand the content, “Sensitive Content: Religious Content” for instance, most parents will be able to easily understand this just from reading the title, when I see this descriptor, I now can immediately understand what the type of content is, and depending on who I am, I can then decide if it’s fine or not fine for my child to engage with. Despite being more “words” per descriptor, it’s actually simpler in the long run for parents, developers, and most importantly, children who may wish to engage with these experiences to develop socially with their friends.

Yes, I am more than aware that access to specific experiences can be enabled/disabled, that doesn’t help with the root problem which is with the vagueness of the descriptor itself, a parent has a LOT to do, they do not have time to research every experience with a sensitive content descriptor that their child may be interested in. But if they have just a dozen or so labels that they can simply scroll through and enable/disable in 30 seconds, it’s much faster and results in superior understanding for the parent as to what their child can be engaging with on Roblox.

Final note, Roblox’s own description of what is sensitive content is very, very inadequate. Just about everything has polarized viewpoints and just about anything can evoke strong emotions. For instance, does pineapple belong on pizza? It doesn’t, but some people seem to think it’s acceptable to put it on there anyways. So are games where you work at a pizza place now sensitive content? Obviously this is a silly question but the criteria itself is silly.

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After going over the update more thoroughly on the surface it actually does look mostly reasonable. Parents should definitely have access to tools which they can use to change what their kids can see on the site. Brilliant! good.

But… there’s definitely a few oddities which makes me raise a major eyebrow other than my previous remark:

C’mon. its the US flag with 13 stars in a circle. It shouldn’t even register as remotely polarizing let alone considered discriminatory.

Let’s start,

I thought these issues weren’t even allowed to be discussed on the platform in the first place, let alone have elements of them integrated in an experience.

Considering that this is the 1st listed in the FAQs, and in conjunction that the listed Sensitive Topics, (which is already a vague topic as it is, but others have covered that) just so happen to be the things covered by the current US administration and specific policy issues US politics revolves around.

So, I’m going to be nice and say Roblox is not entirely candid with the community with this statement. There’s more to what’s going on than what is given.

In conjunction with the new policies being rolled out in the UK and Australia and from companies like YouTube which will rolled out a new Age Verification thing.

All across the internet people can feel there’s some kind of coordination going on to make the internet more restrictive and less free.

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This seems excessive. It is certainly necessary for parents to regulate games their children play, but this isn’t a proper policy.
What game engines truly have to do is providing judging materials to parents, and obey each judgment of parent.

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So we’re developing a tank game still. We’re including a variety of nations’ tanks, from American tanks, to German tanks, to British tanks, to Russian tanks and eventually Chinese and Israeli tanks.

Why I chose to highlight these specifically

These are all examples of nations that, to one group or another, have deployed tanks in a negative connotation that could illicit a strong emotional response regardless of how we try to distance ourselves from their origins. We’re planning to release tanks from every nation for the sake of equal representation and have to find a way to adhere to ROBLOX’s guidelines to do so.

I’m not here to discuss political beliefs for any of the nations. I only highlight them as some of the many that have had tanks serve in combat and peacetime scenarios that have caused traumatic and other extremely strong emotional experiences/responses for individuals of varying age groups.

We aren’t promoting the discussion of sensitive issues, however, the things we are creating assets for are used as tools by militaries of governments around the world. How can we continue to maintain an all-ages rating with an absolute minimal amount of everything, if the very core of our game is inherently linked to topics and governments that have polarized viewpoints and illicit strong emotional responses?

We wish to include all tanks from all nations possible, for the sake of providing as vast a sandbox as we can for users to mix and match components with without directly associating with the nations they are used by or sold to. However… how can we do that and meet the criteria to retain our all-ages/minimal maturity rating?

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Let’s put on our tinfoil hats for a second.

Visa is doing their crap at the same time Roblox announces this.

It lays the grounds for Roblox determining what is considered controversial, and mixed with their notoriously bad moderation, that’s not a great sign.

They also posted it on the Roblox account, meaning they seem to understand it is disliked.

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When I first heard about “sensitive issues”, my first thought was that Roblox was adding a content maturity descriptor for games that reference serious topics such as depression and suicide. Not this.

I thought content like this was mostly prohibited? The Community Standards should be updated to better clarify what is and isn’t allowed here.

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Flat Earth is meant to serve as an example of the extreme side of things that probably wouldn’t ever be added by a reasonable person. I do think it is a worthwhile thought exercise though, because although it would fall underneath the “sensitive topic” criteria, there is a third unseen variable that prevents it from being labelled as one (in this case it might be how widespread it is). This suggests there would at some point be an “in between” where it wouldn’t be clear if it was widespread enough, as well as a bunch of other factors that heavily rely on the person implementing the categorization.

Another topic I see as one that could be unclear would be climate change. I don’t see it labelled as a sensitive topic here, but there is definitely a sizeable amount of people who flat out disagree that it even exists, which would fulfill the criteria of it having polarizing viewpoints. Vaccine policies are labelled sensitive but climate change isn’t, so there is very clearly other factors in play that prevent it from being labelled as one.

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This reply provides critical context. You should have included information about what the parent side of this experience looks like, we don’t understand what the user experience looks like for the player, but with this information then the issue I mentioned is not so bad. If the player can at least request access to an experience that is blocked by parental controls due to containing sensitive content, my original concern is solved.

However overall this is still an unfortunate situation. You’re implicitly empowering anti-progressive parents to prevent their children from interacting with content that may support a core part of their identity. I understand the motivation and why these things may be blocked by default, but it’s still not great.

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This shouldn’t even be about progressive vs non-progressive.

Prime example why this could turn into a dumpster fire. There’s simply too many variables that shift constantly.

Can we not turn this into a political debate here?

Exactly my point. Although they claim they are doing this regardless of the global push towards censorship, I bring into the room a hefty dose of skepticism.

Then again, if you are anyone in Silicon Valley, you’ll be cozying up to whatever government is in power. It certainly is telling though.

See what I mean when I say you are pouring so much energy into something that has a 15% chance of actually being helpful?

Focus your resources on where it actually matters, for christ sake.

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If you don’t think this was a politically charged thread the moment it was posted (or even conceived), I have a very large and very expensive bridge to sell you.

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A perspective from a Canadian adult.

This whole global internet situation right now is a mess. We were warned growing up that the internet control was coming. The days of the wild west are now coming to an end, it appears. It sucks, but it was bound to happen eventually. The gold mine has been discovered.

Growing up, I think out here, we did a lot right in regard to child safety. Parents could put their kids into different religious public schools, a public school, or a private school. From Kindergarten, all the way up to grade 5 (ages 6-11) we were kept away from sensitive topics. The religious schools were a little more censored and patient from exposing the children to certain info. Away from school, video games, board games, movies, and other content was rated. Parents got to decide what their child was allowed to be exposed to outside of school. Movie Theatres checked your ID to enter R rated movies. The library had different sections based off age groups. The teachers and librarians informed you which book section you were allowed to pick from, and they would keep an eye on everyone to make sure they didn’t read anything considered inappropriate.

There were always parent teacher interviews every few months from K to 12 to help keep parents in the loop of what their child has been learning, how their behavior has been, and how they have performed of course.

There were no extreme social studies until you just start to touch on the very basics in grade 6 (ages 11-12). We always had police officers come out to teach and warn about internet safety, and newsletters sent out to parents to keep the school transparent and safe. At my school I didn’t get to touch the computer until grade 3 (ages 8-9) where you were censored and were only allowed on certain educational sites like ones that teach you how to type on a keyboard.

By grade 5 (ages 10-11) we were allowed access to the whole internet, but obviously a lot of sites were blocked by the school and the teacher kept an eye on the whole class to make sure they were on that teacher’s instructed website.

Grade 6 (ages 11-12) is when you just begin to dip your toes into more sensitive topics like relationships of humans, learning about Ancient Greece, and the fall of the Roman Empire. Sexual education I believe began at age 12-13 in grade 7. Every year you had to get your parent to sign a newsletter. The newsletter informed the parent about what was going to be taught in the class and that they were allowed to keep their kid from attending the class if they wanted to. This to me seems fair because it’s the parent’s child, so the parent should get to decide what is best for their kid to be exposed to. This should be true in almost all cases until the age of 18. The brain isn’t even fully developed at 18, but it’s developed enough that the child can now start to make adult decisions for themselves.

In the computer classes, you were allowed to go on any site starting at grade 6, but the school censored and blocked a lot of websites. The websites blocked obviously were sexual, dangerous, and/or distracting away from work. Even Miniclips and Club Penguin got banned eventually after teachers started to find out we played this instead of doing our work. Slowly throughout the years you get introduced to heavier subjects.

By grade 9 (about age 15+ give or take) they are setting you up for high school by introducing you to heavier subjects. You got Shakespeare in English class, with Romeo and Juliet being the first. I remember learning about the Aztecs in social studies. You also learned how to get a job, how to take care of a baby, and learning the current financial costs to survive.

By Grade 10 they are preparing you for adulthood. This is where the controversial subjects begin to get introduced in full force. You are usually about 15–16 years old at this point. You cover books like I remember doing Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Lord of the Flies, and How to Kill a Mockingbird. Then in social studies you begin to learn divisive subjects like concepts involving Globalization. Then grade 11 was Nationalism. Grade 12 was the peak. You study ideologies locally, nationally, and internationally. There were no bounds to studying grade 12 as nothing was off the table with regard to what we were allowed to cover. Which is appropriate because you’re about to graduate and become an adult. Adulthood comes with true freedom. At least it should…

So what’s the point I am trying to make here? There needs to be a sort of balance. It just can’t be biased towards kids. It can’t be biased towards adults. There needs to be a sort of middle ground like what a lot of schools have been trying to do. It needs to be fair for all. We need to determine what age kids can begin to get exposed to certain subjects, we need tools to allow adults to pick and choose what their kid can be exposed to online.

Have some basic parent tools where parents can block out certain games/experiences that the parent doesn’t want their kid to be exposed to, as well as censoring games over a certain age score/rating.

It would also be helpful to educate parents about how to supervise their children online properly. Teach them the tools they can use to prevent their kid from accessing certain games, and how they can look for the signs of a bad actor in a digital social environment. As well as educate the children how to behave in a digital social environment, how to identify stranger danger, and what games they should generally avoid and stay away from. Teach them all the different ratings/scores and what they mean in detail too.

Roblox wants to cater towards all ages and not just children. I agree with them that this is probably the correct move because Roblox should be for all ages. It should have been this way from the very beginning. So why did Roblox make commercials on kids television 8–9 years ago, promoting kids to storm to their platform? Then suddenly pivot 3 years ago, saying now you want all ages on the platform, not just kids? Well, it’s a little late. Every parent I talk to thinks Roblox is strictly for children. Now it’s going to be a heck of a battle to cater to all ages because of the reputation you made for your platform. I think, like schools, Roblox should have a sort of system based on age and ratings until 18+.

18+ should be a different site/platform from the current Roblox platform. Like a completely separate platform, but still owned by the Roblox company. This gives adults the ability to block their children from access to the adult Roblox platform easier. This platform has to be ID verified, and once it is verified then you can begin to think about making this Roblox adult platform more adult oriented like what David (Roblox CEO) wants with the dating or whatever else adults want online these days. All the content on the adult Roblox platform/site will be rated the most adult score automatically, so like a rated R or whatever you decide to call the scores/grades. I think it’s also important to note this as well… Being adult doesn’t always refer to just sex, drugs, smoking, and alcohol. Being an adult can be about independence and maturity, too. Economics, politics, moving, raising a family, going to university and/or college, applying for jobs, working, having a serious relationship, going on your own vacations, getting exercise, being healthy, and so much more. This should all be considered for the adult platform if you decide to go that route.

As for the U18 Roblox site/platform. There should be ratings/grades/scores based off what they would be exposed to at a school’s curriculum at their age. Some parents still aren’t internet savvy. You have to make the ratings more obvious. Have a huge rating/warning on the games page when they click on the game/experience (maybe even atop of the thumbnail?). Have the developers fill out a questionnaire like you have been doing, and then have the game rated off a general curriculum and formula based off like one you would see at a public school. Also, have a whole wiki page explaining how the ratings/scores work. Again, the key being to make it match roughly the age at which a student would be learning the subject in a public school. For example, if your game involves Ancient Greece but like it didn’t include any blood/gore during the killing, then make it rated/scored for ages 11-12+. Grade 6 topic roughly right?

The company and the developers have to make sure all the games are graded appropriate.

What is non-negotiable though is this adult Roblox 18+ has to be separate from the U18 site with strict ID protection. It would be way too dangerous just to allow any u18 onto this site, especially with the dating stuff they want. The grade/score must be the most adult one, automatically.

Generally speaking, it should be safer now because you moved all the adult themed games onto a separate site/platform at this point. Then it becomes about ramping up the moderation for U18 games/experiences. Obviously, the U18 site/platform being a lot of kids is going to attract bad actors. It becomes a parent’s responsibility to supervise their children. Especially when your child is in a social experience talking to strangers. Educating the children how to interact appropriately in social games, and teaching them the signs of stranger danger.

It would be even easier now to catch the bad actors because all the adult stuff is moved somewhere else. I mean you could have basic censorship in the chat like obviously the U18’s should not be allowed to disclose personal info with each other. How would you censor a voice chat for that type of stuff? Artificial intelligence? Like Discord, voice chat should be 13+. It’s too dangerous to let someone U13 to talk in a chat with strangers without parent supervision, in my opinion. Club penguin never had voice chat, and it was still very successful. Children under the age of 12 should be learning how to socialize in real life with other people face to face first. Not until they are comfortable and have gotten good at socializing should they be allowed time online to talk and communicate in a voice chat/call with other strangers, which roughly will be about the age of 13+. I have seen far too often people who should not be on Discord get into a call they shouldn’t be in, and just get clowned on by people years older than them and just get completely be embarrassed and humiliated to the point of tears.

That’s on Discord for not having the measures to prevent underage users from using their platform. I can’t do much about it until someone reports to me that they discovered someone is under 13. Then I ban them, then they just use a VPN and make another account to get back in any way. It’s like a game of cat and mouse. Makes me wonder where the heck their parents are. It’s on the parent for leaving their kid unattended on a social site in a voice call with strangers. That’s my opinion based off my experience online.

I went on a big rant because this stuff matters to me. I love Roblox. Hence, I don’t ever want to see it collapse to the point of no return. I think this platform brings too much joy for people to just quit. Sometimes you guys make it so hard for us, though. Not always your fault, but it can be frustrating for us when we get announcements that come out of the blue that completely reverse the track of the platform 180 degrees.

If you have any questions or concerns, Feel free to contact me. I would be happy to help out. I have been on this platform since close to the very beginning of its existence. I have grown up on it, and experienced it all. Likewise, I think where there is a will there is a way. If Roblox really wants to make it’s brand truly all ages again I think it’s definitely due-able, but you got a long ways to go to get there still. A huge mountain to climb, if you will. I wish you all nothing but the best moving forward, and hopefully things will work out for you guys in the end! I’m rooting for you!

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Ya, but we don’t have to deep dive into one specific issue here.

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I agree with this part. However,

disagree with this part. Children should not be kept from interaction with adults. As you said, there are proper ages when children start knowing particular contents, and interaction with adults is same.
If my child interacted with adults on the Internet when he is 10 or less years old, I think it is too early.

But, when the proper ages are depends on each parent’s policy, so Roblox should just provide the tools to parents, and shouldn’t separate platform by one particular standard.

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although i understand some of the topics, “immigration” will apply (judging by how you guys suck at moderation) to just about any border roleplay game. “vaccinations” will apply to any game with a “cure,” “vaccine,” or hell, any other medical term.

also, david, how about you consider that you’re doing this while pushing dating on the platform? wasn’t ODing on roblox a HUGE issue only a few years ago?

actually pick topics that have subjective +/-s and moderate consistently, and roblox, tell us exactly what is a yes, or what is a no. this is so broad that it’s pointless and will harm the platform.

also allowing parents to turn on/off what is a “sensitive issue” to them will just inhibit growth of the next generation by withholding information, good job roblox!

and also

Are you doing this as a response to the current US political administration or any other specific regulatory requirement?

  • No. This change is not a response to any specific regulatory requirement or governmental request.

LOL

edit: want to add that this openly shows that roblox is willing to cater to a anti-lgbt agenda (which although i get that’s a issue in some countries, this is unacceptable) by putting “marriage equality” up there.

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“No, Officer, there is no enby pride flag in my game that’s locked to a 1 in 25 chance”

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okay, bad points i stated earlier aside from this, constantly updating your tos to cater to whatever is happening is going to be a NIGHTMARE for developers to work around. if you’re going to implement this, i heavily recommend we have a straightforward set of rules that actually define “sensitive issues” instead of the broadness we’ve recieved.
make a list that shows what issues are considered “sensitive” and updating it yearly would be fine to me, but things change too fast for a consistently changing system.

question: how often can we expect changes in the “sensitive topics” criteria to occur?
question: can we please get a defined list of “sensitive topics” before they are implemented into moderation?

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