Wording of "Roblox 17+ Policy Standards" makes it difficult to create mature experiences

[Abcreator]

As a Roblox developer, it is currently too hard to create mature experiences even with the addition of 17+ experiences and the Roblox 17+ Policy Standards, these standards appear to have multiple issues that make it much more difficult to create mature-experiences on the platform, in this feature-request I will discuss some of these major pain-points:

1. Some standards are… missing?
   For example, there appears to be absolutely no standards regarding “crude humour” (despite only “moderate” being permitted)
2. Failure to list what is ALLOWED!
   The second-biggest flaw with the 17+ standards (and the normal standards too) is that it fails to list what is allowed and instead focusses only on what isn’t, this leads to barely any use-cases being shown and leaves creators scratching their head on how they can implement certain features (especially with-in the tight restrictions regarding text-chat and assets). For example, am I allowed to have an NPC show affection to a player, who knows! All it tells me is that relationships between two-players aren’t. This wouldn’t be an issue if we had a different article telling us about what is allowed, yet we don’t.
3. It doesn’t incorporate the regular community standards?
   Where are all the other standards? I’m specifically referring to all the standards that shouldn’t be changed in 17+ experiences (or if they are, it isn’t communicated). Currently the standards are spread amongst the regular “Community Standards” and the “17+ Policy Standards” which makes the guidelines for 17+ experiences difficult to read and keeps creators guessing on what is incorporated from the normal standards. This is not preferable.

If Roblox is able to address this issue, it would improve my development experience because it would make it much easier to create mature experiences on the platform.

[L7_M]

Everything in italics was directly copied and pasted.
Seriously…like look at this:

17+ Experiences may contain non-sexual expressions of love and affection, and may reference romantic themes and topics. However, we prohibit content that depicts sexual activity or seeks real-world romantic relationships, including:

• Romantic or flirtatious gestures or communication between users in a romantic context Okay so, they can’t say “I love you”?
• Pursuing or soliciting romantic relationships online Aren’t relationships supposed to be romantic? Are we supposed to act like it’s a business deal or something???

Not to mention, Roblox is inconsistent with their 17+ policy…

This is per their 17+ policy
17+ experiences on Roblox may include references to, and depictions of, alcohol use and intoxicated behavior. However, we prohibit users from discussing, depicting, or promoting illegal and some regulated goods, including:

• Illegal and regulated drugs, including marijuana and the misuse of prescription or over-the-counter drugs, and the depiction of intoxication as a result of these substances
• Drug, tobacco, vaping, or other smoking paraphernalia
• Dietary supplements and enhancers such as weight loss pills and steroids

Okay so, by reading this it seems like you can include things like beer bottles and wine glasses, but per their announcement on the devforum they said

Examples of assets that are currently prohibited include and are not limited to:

• Alcohol assets such as beer cans, a glass of wine, or alcohol bottles explicitly labeled as beer, wine, and/or alcohol.

They are not consistent with their policy. If someone was to only read the Roblox 17+ Policy Standards. then they would likely include beer bottles, wine glasses, etc. However, in the devforum announcement, they state they clearly prohibit it, and that only red solo cups are allowed. This is super inconsistent and could get so many banned on accident

[waves5217 (waves)]

I agree that the 17+ Policy Standards don’t seem complete enough to give developers enough confidence for creation of mature games.

This is not meant to be a legal advice.

The new policy is an extension of the existing Community Standards. It appears that if a standard is not supplemented by the 17+ policy, it should remain as part of the universal standards.

At least that’s how the hierarchy in the law works. More specific legal acts prevail over general ones (lex specialis derogat legi generali). I don’t see the special standards not incorporating regular standards to be something inferior to a completely independent document, as long as the text is clear and possible to interpret beyond reasonable doubt.

After all, the 17+ policy doesn’t explicitly focus on other important areas, such as discrimination and hate speech, harrasement, child endangerment etc. All those points apply, nevertheless.

Luckily, it was stated for the new policy to be open to changes, and that they “plan to introduce support for 17+ assets and communication in future launches”.

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Off-color humor

Crude humor? Good question.

I assume it is allowed in moderate amounts. This type of humor may be considered poorly tasted or even vulgar. A big portion of it is already restricted in other chapters, such as strong sexual references, discriminative content, and so on.

Some cases are still questionable, which, in my opinion, makes it a subject to possible expansion in the policy. Perhaps same applies to political content (although I’d personally prefer it remain restricted as it is).

As for communication (text filtering and voice chat), according to the document, Roblox is still planning on adding 17+ support.

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Romantic content and references

I agree that the line between allowed and disallowed romantic content is still thin, and could be further elaborated. Seems like the 17+ policy, just like the universal standards, doesn’t favor online dating, pursuing romantic relationships neither on- nor off-line. Platonic-affection, to my knowledge, is not prohibited in experiences, however, it is rather the distinction between romantic references, and staightforward flirting and sexual activities that is in question.

17+ assets

@L7_M

They are not consistent with their policy. If someone was to only read the Roblox 17+ Policy Standards. then they would likely include beer bottles, wine glasses, etc. However, in the devforum announcement, they state they clearly prohibit it, and that only red solo cups are allowed. This is super inconsistent and could get so many banned on accident

The announcement post clarifies what the 17+ Policy Standards mean in the following paragraph:

17+ assets are not permitted yet, which excludes assets like explicit beer bottles, decals depicting strong violence etc. It means such content may not be uploaded, but milder depictions placed into the scene may be.

Those “red cups” were solely an example. It may be any asset acceptable by universal community standards, placed into the setting of a club, thus possibly implying alcoholic baverages.

@Seranok

• Today we allow the depiction of weapons. To depict more intense violence, creators can have avatars carrying realistic weapons and fighting with vivid animations and audio effects like gunshots and screams .
• Today, we allow realistic blood assets. To depict gore, creators can combine multiple realistic blood assets to create more intense scenes.
• Today, we allow red plastic cups . To depict alcohol consumption, creators can combine these assets within animations in a club scene.

[Abcreator]

@waves5217

The new policy is an extension of the existing Community Standards. It appears that if a standard is not supplemented by the 17+ policy, it should remain as part of the universal standards.

This unfortunately makes it very difficult to read the standards. It would be much preferable if all of the standards could be listed on the 17+ page, just for convenience-sake. I don’t want to have to open two different rule pages and read both just to ensure that I meet the 17+ standards.