A month after introducing mandatory facial verification to access chats on its platform, Roblox says 45% of daily active users have passed age checks as of January 31.
Roblox's launch of age controls follows a wave of child safety lawsuits, including lawsuits filed by the Texas attorney general, Kentuckyand Louisiana. Lawsuits have been filed in response to reports This Roblox exposed young users to dangerous threats such as grooming and adult content.
To complete the age verification process, users must open the Roblox app, allow camera access, and follow a series of on-screen facial verification instructions. Once the age check is processed, Roblox says it deletes any user photos and videos. Verification is carried out by an external supplier, Personwhich also deletes images and videos once the process is complete, says Roblox.
Once users verify their age, they will have access to age-based chats, which means they can only communicate with others in a similar age group. There are six age groups: under 9, 9 to 12, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, 18 to 20 and over 21. Users of any age group can chat with people in groups immediately above and below their group. For example, users in the 9-12 category can chat with people in their own group, as well as with people in the under 9 and 13-15 groups.
If a user's age is incorrectly estimated during the age verification process, they can appeal the decision and verify their age using alternative methods, including identity verification or parental controls, which allow parents to update their child's age.
The company said during its Publication of results for the fourth quarter of 2025 this week, age-checked data reveals a user base that is younger than self-reported data. This isn't surprising, and even Roblox itself has stated that it expected this outcome. Of the 45% of users who passed an age check, 35% are under 13 years old, 38% are between 13 and 17 years old, and 27% are over 18 years old.
As the company implemented the new process, some concerns about specific gaps emerged. For example, Wire reported that eBay had auctions for age-verified Roblox accounts for minors as young as nine years old. Even though eBay has removed these listings, concerns remain that predators could gain access to accounts impersonating minors, gaming the system.
Eliza Jacobs, Roblox's senior director of product policy, told TechCrunch on Friday that the company has continuous age checking systems running in the background to address these concerns and prevent this type of abuse.
Jacobs said the platform checks to see if “there are any indications in your account that the age that we currently have on that account is not consistent with the activity on that account. Whether it's the type of games you're playing or who you're talking to. We also did keystroke analysis. The way adults type is different from the way kids type. So (we have) a lot of systems running in the background to make sure the age is accurate for the person actually using the account. What if we have Any reason to believe this is not accurate, we will introduce additional checks to ensure this is true.”
She noted that another way Roblox checks age accuracy is by looking at how a person uses emojis. Jacobs explained that older generations tend to use emojis at the end of sentences as punctuation marks, while younger generations often place them in the middle of the sentence.
In addition to age checks to make the platform safer, Roblox CEO and co-founder David Baszucki said during the company's earnings call that the data collected from these checks will be used to increase revenue.
“We were able to find greater growth opportunities in the 18-plus demographic than previously anticipated,” Baszucki said. “We estimate that our 18-and-over cohort is growing by over 50%, and this cohort earns 40% more than younger cohorts.”
He went on to say that Roblox is optimizing its platform to facilitate the development of high-income genres popular with older users, such as shooting games, role-playing games, sports and racing.
Roblox says it will continue to improve its security measures to respond to evolving threats and user needs.
