How do I manage the new Roblox Kids and Select account settings for my family?
Table of Contents
Roblox’s new accounts don’t just filter games—they block unscripted drawing and hangouts for safety. See how these automated safety tiers actually work.
Key Takeaways
What: Roblox Kids and Select accounts for users aged 5 to 15.
Why: To provide age-appropriate safety that evolves automatically as children grow.
How: Restricting unscripted features like free-form drawing and social hangouts through age verification and expanded parental overrides.
Roblox is changing how its youngest users interact with its digital world, shifting away from a one-size-fits-all experience to a system that matures alongside the player. This new structure introduces Roblox Kids (ages five to eight) and Roblox Select (ages nine to 15) to manage content access and social features.
The Safety Paradox: Restricting Creativity to Protect Kids
Standard industry logic suggests that “creative freedom” is the goal for children’s platforms, but Roblox is taking a counter-intuitive path by limiting specific creative tools to ensure safety. For the first time, experiences featuring free-form drawing tools or social hangout environments are automatically stripped from the default catalogs of younger users.
While drawing is often viewed as a harmless activity, it presents a unique moderation challenge because it allows for the real-time creation of unscripted content that filters cannot always catch. By removing these “open canvas” features, Roblox is prioritizing technical curation over total creative liberty for those under 16. Both account tiers now require games to pass additional review standards, including developer verification and real-time evaluation, before they appear in the curated lists.
The Automated Path to Adulthood
The platform now handles account aging as a sequence of stages rather than a single jump.
- Roblox Kids (5-8): These accounts have the strictest settings, with chat disabled by default and access restricted to games with Minimal or Mild maturity ratings.
- Roblox Select (9-15): Users gain access to Moderate content. Chat settings in this tier vary based on local regulations and the user’s specific age.
- Standard Accounts (16+): Transitioning to a full account is no longer automatic; it requires a confirmed age check through facial age estimation or ID verification.
Matt Kaufman, the Chief Safety Officer at Roblox, notes that these protections are designed to evolve because a seven-year-old and a thirteen-year-old have vastly different digital needs.
Parents as the Final Curators
The updated framework moves parents from passive observers to active managers. By linking their accounts, parents can monitor spending limits, screen time, and friend lists. A significant addition is the game approval feature, which allows a parent to manually grant access to a specific game even if it sits outside the child’s default age tier. This acknowledges that age ratings are a guide, but parental discretion remains the final authority.
Technological Walls and Global Standards
To support these tiers, Roblox is leaning on Facial Age Estimation technology provided by the third-party vendor Persona. This biometric check is now a requirement for anyone wishing to access standard accounts or communication features once the rollout is complete.
The platform is also cutting off external paths for younger users. Those under 16 can no longer view or share social media links on profiles or game pages, a move designed to keep interactions within the moderated ecosystem. To ensure these rules make sense globally, Roblox is transitioning to the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) framework, aligning its content labels with the same standards used by major app stores and global gaming consoles.