Roblox's Year of Age Checks: Safer Chat, State Settlements and Fewer Daily Players
In 2026 Roblox made face-scan age checks mandatory for chat, split its players into age tiers and settled with several US states. Then daily players fell for the first time ever. How safety became Roblox's biggest business story.
For most of its life, Roblox asked new players a simple question: what is your birthday? In January 2026, it stopped taking the answer on trust. Anyone who wants to chat on Roblox now has to prove their age, usually by holding their phone up to their face.
On January 7, 2026, Roblox made age checks mandatory worldwide for access to chat. By the end of September, 64% of its daily players worldwide had completed one, rising to about 75% in the US and UK. In the same months, Roblox settled with several US states over child safety, split its accounts into age-based tiers, and reported its first-ever year-on-year fall in daily players. Safety has become Roblox's most important business story.
How the age checks work
Roblox's check uses facial age estimation. Players open the app, allow camera access and follow prompts, and a third-party company, Persona, estimates their age from the images, which Roblox says are deleted afterwards. Players aged 13 and over can verify with ID instead, and parents can correct a child's age through parental controls.
Once checked, players can only chat with people in their own or neighbouring age groups. Roblox uses six bands: under 9, 9-12, 13-15, 16-17, 18-20 and 21+. Chat is off by default for the youngest players unless a parent agrees after an age check. Roblox also says it watches for behaviour that suggests someone is much older or younger than their check showed, and can ask them to check again.
Lawsuits and settlements
The changes did not come out of nowhere. At least eight US state attorneys general, including Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Kentucky, have sued Roblox, accusing it of failing to protect children. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the platform a "digital playground that conceals predators." Roblox also faces more than 140 lawsuits in US federal court, which were brought together under a single judge in California in 2026.
Rather than fight every case in court, in 2026 Roblox began settling with some states:
- Nevada: more than $12 million, including $10 million over three years for youth programmes. Attorney General Aaron Ford said it would "create a safer environment for our children online."
- West Virginia: about $11 million over several years.
- Alabama: $12.2 million, to fund school resource officers, according to Reuters.
The settlements share common terms: age checks for everyone before chat, limits on adults contacting under-16s except as verified trusted contacts, safer default content for under-16s and restrictions on late-night notifications for minors. In its third-quarter results, Roblox excluded $49 million in legal settlement costs linked to youth safety from its adjusted earnings.
New account tiers
In April 2026, Roblox announced a deeper change, splitting the platform into three kinds of account from mid-May: Roblox Kids for the youngest players, with chat off by default and only the mildest content; Roblox Select for older children and young teens, with chat limited to similar ages and parent-approved friends; and standard accounts from 16, with the most restricted content still gated until 18. Players who had not completed an age check by June were placed in a Kids-style experience without chat.
The business cost
Friction has a price. In the third quarter of 2026, Roblox's daily active users fell 9% to 138 million, and hours played fell 15%. Bookings, the money players spent, fell 12% to $1.70 billion, and monthly paying users fell 16%. Roblox has not blamed a single cause, and it was comparing against an exceptional 2025, but the age-check rollout added steps for millions of young players.
There were bright spots. Daily players aged over 18 grew 18%, and adults made up 29% of age-checked daily players worldwide and 37% in the US. Roblox said retention was at its highest level since 2021.
Why it matters
Roblox is the clearest test yet of what happens when a huge platform for children puts safety ahead of growth. The short-term cost is visible in its numbers. The long-term bet is that parents, regulators and older players will trust a platform where you have to prove your age to talk to strangers.
WGC's take: these changes were overdue, and the settlements show the cost of acting late. The rest of the industry should be watching closely. Age checks are spreading through law in many countries, and Roblox is showing every other online game what they cost, and what they might be worth. For how the money side of the platform works, see our Roblox creator economy long read.