On Nov. 18, 2025, Roblox, a massive platform used for both programming and playing games, implemented age verification and grouping as a requirement for users to chat. Following previous child safety concerns, both legally and from the player base, this system utilizes AI in combination with government ID or a photo to sort users into various age groups. Users may chat with those in similar age groups, but cannot chat with users in distant age groups.
Although this system has been implemented to protect the safety of users and create a better platform for all, many have found that this system has major flaws. Due to the utilization of an AI system, there are imperfections with the automatic assigning of ages. In extreme cases, users can be placed in an age group opposite of what they should have been placed in.
“Because I am East Asian, I have more of a baby face, but my 14-year-old friend, who is white, looks older and got set to [a higher age group] than me,” FHS sophomore Kathleen Lei said. “He was classified as 21 plus while I was put as 13 years old. Mind you, I’m 15.”
Additionally, this system is susceptible to abuse. There are numerous listings of age verified minor accounts that can be purchased for as little as $4 on eBay, according to WIRED. By purchasing an already verified account, predators can bypass the age verification process entirely and chat with users in the lower age groups. While eBay is taking measures to take such listings down, the fact that this even exists proves that the age verification is not as flawless as Roblox might have hoped.
Furthermore, even without resorting to purchasing accounts, it is possible to fool the system. Through modifying one’s face by drawing on it or by simply providing photos of another person, it is possible to be placed into an incorrect age group.
“The safety of kids is the main expectation of that feature,” Lei said. “But it literally gives a gateway for people who want to talk to those kids in a very bad way to be able to exclusively talk to them. They can literally get sorted to find those kids if they wanted to.”
Many users have expressed reluctance to give their personal information to the company. Roblox stated that they do not receive a copy of one’s biometric data and instead give it to Persona, an identity verification company, who process the data and delete it within 30 days, bypassing legal issues that require them to keep it for longer. Although the data is deleted, users are concerned with both the potential of a data breach and what the company actually does with the biometric data. Users who do not verify their age lose their ability to use the chat function.
Many players have experienced changes in the general culture of Roblox as a result of the changes. As a result of many users being unable to chat or send messages, many games have inactive chats in some lobbies. Additionally, users who have the ability to chat have less incentive to use it because they do not know whether or not the people in their game can see their messages. Furthermore, there is a possibility that verified users will not be able to see each other’s chat messages, leading to a further decrease in chat activity.
“There’s no one chatting because there’s no one verifying,” FHS sophomore Isaac Louie said. “I don’t want to be potentially put with those little kids.”
To combat the limitations of player interaction, different games have taken an inventive approach to allow players to communicate outside of their age groups. However, more often than not, these fixes have not been enough to prevent people from abandoning chatting altogether. Chat activity as a whole has dropped significantly since the update.
“I would say that the idea of it, separating the ages, is a very good one, especially with the predatory problems with Roblox,” FHS sophomore Aiden Levin said. “The way they implemented it was bad, and I think that they could have come up with something way better.”
