A month after introducing mandatory facial verification for access to chats on its platform, Roblox says 45% of its each day energetic users have undergone age checks as of January 31.
Roblox’s launch of age checks followed a wave of lawsuits over child safety, including ones from the attorneys general of Texas, Kentucky, and Louisiana. The lawsuits were filed in response to reports that Roblox was exposing young users to dangerous risks, resembling grooming and explicit content.
To finish the age-check process, users need to open the Roblox app, allow access to their camera, and follow a series of on-screen instructions for facial verification. Once the age check is processed, Roblox says it deletes any images or videos of users. The verification is processed by a third-party vendor, Persona, which also deletes images and videos after completing the method, Roblox says.
Once users complete an age check, they will access age-based chats, which implies they will only communicate with others in an analogous age group. There are six age groups: under 9, 9 to 12, 13 to fifteen, 16 to 17, 18 to twenty, and 21 plus. Users in each age group can chat with people within the groups directly above and below theirs. For instance, users within the 9-12 category can chat with people in their very own group, in addition to those within the under 9 and 13-15 groups.
If the age-check process incorrectly estimates a user’s age, they will appeal the choice and confirm their age through alternative methods, including ID verification or through parental controls that allow parents to update their child’s age.
The corporate said during its Q4 2025 earnings release this week that age-checked data reveals a younger user base than self-reported data. This isn’t surprising, and even Roblox itself said it expected this end result. Of the 45% of users who’ve undergone age checks, 35% are under 13, 38% are between the ages of 13 and 17, and 27% are over 18.
As the corporate rolled out the brand new process, some concerns were raised around particular loopholes. As an illustration, Wired reported that eBay had listings for age-verified Roblox accounts for minors as young as nine years old. Regardless that eBay has removed the listings, concerns remain that predators could access accounts posing as minors by tricking the system.
Roblox’s senior director of product policy, Eliza Jacobs, told TechCrunch on Friday that the corporate has continuous age-check systems running within the background to handle these concerns and forestall any such abuse.
Jacobs said the platform looks to see if “there are any signals in your account that indicate that the age that we now have on that account just isn’t consistent with the activity on that account. Whether that’s the sorts of games you’re playing, or who you’re talking to. We even have key stroke evaluation. The best way adults type is different from the best way kids type. So [we have] a lot of systems running within the background to be certain that the age is accurate to the person actually using the account. And if now we have any reason to imagine that it’s not accurate, we are going to introduce additional checks to be sure that that now we have it right.”
She noted that one other way Roblox looks for age accuracy is by taking a look at how an individual uses emojis. Older generations are likely to use emojis at the tip of sentences as punctuation, while younger people often place them in the midst of sentences, Jacobs explained.
Along with using age checks to make its platform safer, Roblox CEO and co-founder David Baszucki said through the company’s earnings call that the information collected because of this of those checks can be used to grow revenue.
“We now have been in a position to find an even bigger growth opportunity within the 18-plus demographic than previously assumed,” Baszucki said. “We estimate our 18 and over cohort is growing at over 50%, and this cohort monetizes 40% higher than younger cohorts.”
He went on to say that Roblox is optimizing its platform to facilitate the expansion of high-revenue genres popular with older users, resembling shooters, RPGs, sports, and racing.
Roblox says it’s going to proceed to reinforce its safety measures to answer evolving risks and user needs.