Updating Experience Guideline Policies to Keep Our Younger Users Safe

[TimeFrenzied (of Xyaery)]

@RickWasAlreadyTaken

Now, Roblox’s main age demographic aren’t able to play the Social Hangout games.

Instance #72 of people unaware Roblox is rated T (I don’t blame you at this point)

@HooferBevelops

This Devforum post specifically states that it applies only to 2D, whilst saying that 3D is otherwise. The guideline itself has no mention of 2D, only that 3D assets make it an exception. In the example of spray paint, if I were to make 3D meshes for the spray, that have volume, would that no longer make it 2D? Would that still be considered free-form user content?

This is actually smart and another loophole these types of games will use.

[luabarnes (luca)]

I totally agree. Roblox IS a social platform first and foremost itself and always has been

[Xaoijin (Jinsu)]

Maybe enforce the policies and it will keep the younger users safe? Food for thought?

[Ethanthegrand14 (Ethanthegrand)]

@Roblox

Free-form User Creation

Free-form user creation applies to features within experiences that allow users to draw or write in 2D and replicate those creations to other users without the completed creation going through Roblox moderation (e.g., writing or drawing on a chalkboard, whiteboard, or with spray paint). This does not include in-experience user creations assembled with 3D assets that have individually gone through Roblox moderation (e.g. building a house with blocks, creating an outfit, creating short-form videos of in-experience content).

What if our game doesnt rely on any drawing being shared. Like for an example, i have a drawing gallery that only appears for 13+ users via an API that can allow us to check what users can and cannot see.

This would be the safest and best option to all devs

[GloryToTheSunGod (RadPugGuy)]

In many cases it’s very easy as a developer to disable the 13+ content in a game locally for < 13 users on the fly. For instance, in my shooter game i could easily auto disable blood for < 13 users. In the future is there any chance my game could be made playable for those users provided I adapt the experience to their preferences / restrictions?

alternatively, i would take the ability to make a version of my game only playable and only recommended to < 13 users. though that’s less than ideal.

[TimeFrenzied (of Xyaery)]

@ShinyGriffin

Would it ever be possible in the future for developers to limit certain features of a game to 13+?

@Ethanthegrand14

for an example, i have a drawing gallery that only appears for 13+ users via an API that can allow us to check what user can and cannot see.

CORRECT ME IF IM WRONG but isn’t there a Chat Api that can tell you if a string would tag for a specific user or not?

[iOwn_You]

there is, but the experience would still be restricted to 13+
it would be awesome if you could make those minor optimizations and get a bigger audience reach

[HadFish_2009 (Artifice)]

Not the most perfect update but it’s a slight improvement. Just a couple hundred more of those and Roblox will be safe lol.

[sicknoobie (Marioman73)]

Will you ever consider allowing developers to prevent <13 users from joining their experience if it is rated 13+? Currently the only way to enforce this is checking their ID verification status, but that is a bit invasive and prevents non-ID verified people from joining.

[weakroblox35]

Does this apply for graffiti-tools that use decals?

[TimeFrenzied (of Xyaery)]

Why do you want to prevent this? This seems like the opposite of what you’d want to do.

Also

Updating Experience Guideline Policies to Keep Our Younger Users Safe

CORRECT ME IF IM WRONG but isn’t there a Chat Api that can tell you if a string would tag for a specific user or not?

You can check the chat api

[sicknoobie (Marioman73)]

I set it to 13+ for a reason, <13 is not my target audience and often brings more trouble than its worth in analytics alone.

[BillB1ox (Will)]

Very sad that it has come to this, but safety must be prioritized.

I do have a question tho, I saw that moderated 3D assets can continue to be placed down, but what about just plain parts that the user can change the color of?

I have a game (even though it’s dead) where you battle your creative building skills where this does happen.
Also do I need to upload premade stuff in this game up to the catalog as a private asset as well?

The target audience for this experience are users 9-12 primarily.

[TimeFrenzied (of Xyaery)]

What is your game about though, and why does this make these users a problem?

[smashblox55 (Clinomi)]

Awesome, this sounds like it could be really helpful!

[Chaos_GeoAlt (HardtaleSans)]

tbh this is a good thing
as far as i know social hangouts often ended up being… “interesting”
and freeform content creation experiences being restricted to 13+ users is also understandable since it’s very easy for one bad actor to draw “things” and permanently scar children

[Abcreator]

@Roblox

This does not include in-experience user creations assembled with 3D assets that have individually gone through Roblox moderation (e.g. building a house with blocks, creating an outfit, creating short-form videos of in-experience content).

This seems quite odd. Why are these cases permitted while 2D content is not? The cases listed here (building a house with parts) are no different from creating an image in 2D with circular parts in a spray paint game. Feels odd why this is specifically going at 2D content creation games.

@Roblox

No, experiences where players adopt various roles (e.g., teacher, police officer, race car driver) or are provided with items to role-play with will not be restricted.

Unless I’m missing something, this doesn’t make any sense, then? If the goal was to reduce the amount of ‘weird’ social hangout games; those people will probably just add roles/items to the games to comply with this new policy and act like a ‘roleplay’ game. The solution here shouldn’t be to age restrict a whole genre of game but to instead enforce policies around particular experiences which are obviously violative (such as experiences which highly encourage illegal behaviour via their game design). I fear that this current solution will only lead these experiences to add themselves into other genres to work around this policy; making this whole situation worse. This problem certainly needs to be solved, but I don’t think this is the way to do it.

[TimeFrenzied (of Xyaery)]

Because they don’t want these kids moving to minecraft lol

If every building game is restricted to 13+ that locks off a whole genre for younger people which could be the only reason they play roblox in the first place

[PrincessPandaBlox (BlazeTheCat)]

RIP Guess the Drawing, I guess (no pun intended).

[Abcreator]

@TimeFrenzied

If every building game is restricted to 13+ that locks off a whole genre for younger people

So why disallow 2D UGC creation experiences if 3D UGC creation experiences are entirely fine? That’s my point here. Disallowing one while saying the other is perfectly fine doesn’t do anything except hurt the people who are making 2D UGC creation games.

Again, I’m not saying that 3D creation games should also be age restricted (because that would encourage developers to not allow players to make custom maps in their experience to get a lower age rating) but that a different ‘solution’ is needed to actually solve any issues at hand.