Roblox and Grok Take Center Stage as Approaches to Protecting Children Online Continue to Develop

Digital Platforms Respond to Teen Safety Concerns

As scrutiny grows over how digital, gaming, and social platforms protect young users, companies are making changes to address worries about insufficient oversight and to defend their proposed solutions.

Main Points

• Social media and gaming platforms are introducing measures to better identify minors and restrict their exposure to adult content or interactions with older users.
• While platforms claim to be attentive to privacy, advocates have voiced apprehensions about the risks posed by age-verification technologies.

This week, Roblox implemented a new requirement for users to verify their age in order to continue chatting, joining other tech companies in updating their strategies to safeguard minors online.

Meta (META) has started filtering out content on Instagram that would be rated PG-13 for teen users, and OpenAI is modifying ChatGPT’s interactions with underage individuals. Meanwhile, Grok now limits its image generation feature to paying customers after controversy erupted over the creation of images depicting real people, including minors, in revealing clothing.

These changes come as digital service providers face criticism for not doing enough to monitor teens, and as their solutions—such as ID verification, biometric scans, and behavioral analysis—raise alarms among privacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

According to the organization, “Such restrictive requirements threaten the core principles of an open and free internet.”

Significance of These Developments

The way this issue unfolds has financial and legal consequences for companies, as they must contract with age-verification vendors and consider regulatory compliance.

Roblox (RBLX) announced on Wednesday that it is introducing measures to ensure users can only communicate with peers of a similar age. To send messages, users must either pass a “facial age estimation” or provide a photo ID. The company reports that over half of its active users have participated in the process, although some have complained about being incorrectly classified and blocked from messaging. Neither Roblox nor Persona, the company behind the verification tool, responded to requests for comment.

Instagram’s teen accounts, launched about a year ago, have been well received by parents, according to the company. Recently, Instagram has started preventing these accounts from viewing content that would be rated PG-13.

Edward Patterson, a spokesperson for Meta, stated, “We take a holistic approach to ensuring that teens have age-appropriate experiences on our platforms.”

Instagram says it has incorporated “privacy and data protection safeguards” for younger users. Yoti, the company that provides age estimation services, deletes analyzed selfies and ID images within 30 days, according to Instagram.

Persona, which handles age estimation for Roblox and OpenAI, also deletes user images after the verification process is finished, the companies report.

On Grok, users can now only generate images if they have a subscription. This policy was introduced recently after the platform’s safety team emphasized its commitment to removing illegal content and cooperating with law enforcement when necessary.

Elon Musk, owner of X, commented, “Anyone using Grok to create illegal content will face the same consequences as those who upload illegal material.”

Additional changes may be forthcoming, as governments around the world consider new regulations for how online platforms treat young users. For example, New Zealand’s prime minister has proposed banning those under 16 from social media, following Australia’s restrictions for younger teens.

In the United States, lawmakers are also debating new rules for youth online safety. The Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that more than half of U.S. states have enacted laws requiring some form of age verification on digital platforms.