Australia’s online safety regulator has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from Roblox that requires the platform to submit its age-estimation measures to an independent auditor. It is the first time third-party auditing has been required under the country’s Online Safety Act.
eSafety accepted the undertaking after concluding Roblox was not meeting obligations under the Act’s codes and standards, including a failure to prevent contact between adults and children under 16. The Relevant Electronic Services Standard, which covers online gaming platforms, requires children’s accounts to be private by default and reporting mechanisms that notify users of complaint outcomes.
Testing by the regulator earlier this year found gaps it considered continued to put children at risk. Adults could send connection requests to young Australian children without parental or carer consent. Children and adults could view and respond to one another’s posts on forums outside game environments. Children’s connections were visible to anyone on the platform, as were their profiles and biographies, including account names, the number and names of their connections, avatar images and their stated interests, with no option to restrict that visibility.
Roblox maintains it is meeting its obligations, but has committed to four changes. It will prevent adults from contacting unknown children without parental consent, default children’s accounts to private, and provide reporting that notifies users of complaint outcomes. It will also engage an independent third-party auditor to assess the effectiveness of its safety measures, including the deployment of its age-estimation technology. It has three months to implement the changes.
Commissioner Julie Inman Grant singled out the audit. “Critically, the inclusion of third-party auditing ensures Roblox cannot mark their own homework, and there will be robust independent evaluation of these commitments,” she said. “This is the first time such third-party auditing has been required under Australia’s Online Safety Act.”
Roblox had already extended facial age estimation worldwide and tied chat access to the result, so the audit will examine a system already running at scale. Inman Grant said recent national research estimates about 1.7 million Australian children use the platform, the second most popular game with children in the country.
If Roblox breaches the undertaking, eSafety may apply to the Federal Court for an order directing compliance. Other governments have pushed at the same question differently: Thailand’s digital ministry has proposed linking its National Digital ID to Roblox accounts. The company also faces an investor suit tying an age-verification slowdown to its growth. eSafety issued transparency notices to Roblox and other gaming services in April, with a report expected later this year.
Sources: eSafety Commissioner, ABC News
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By Cass Kennedy
