How to make your roblox account private

Roblox calls itself the “world’s largest entertainment platform.” Players build games for other community members using the Roblox Studio. Roblox is available for download as an app on various platforms, including smartphones, computers, tablets, and some consoles, such as the XBox One, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift.

Roblox chat is filtered to prevent any personally identifiable information or inappropriate content from being shared with other users. Players have default settings based on the date of birth set on their account.

Players 12 years or younger have posts and chats filtered for inappropriate content and behavior, as well as personal information. Those 13 years or older can say more words and phrases than younger players, but personal information or inappropriate content remains restricted regardless of age. This system is applied to most areas of Roblox, whether public or private.

Roblox accounts list the age bracket of the account in the upper right corner as either 13+ or <13 depending on the date of birth to help parents determine the player’s experience while in the game. This information is also displayed during game play, but it is not displayed to other players and can only be seen by the account user while they are logged in.

Accounts, regardless of player age, can have parental controls in place to limit or disable various chat features, including who can chat with them in a game or on the site, who can send messages, who can follow them into games, and who can invite them to VIP servers.

Setting Parental Controls on Roblox

Parents can adjust the interaction settings of their child’s account with the following steps:

1. Log in to the account.
2. Click the gear icon, and then click Settings.
3. On the right-hand side of the Settings page, click Privacy.
4. From here, you can adjust both Contact Settings and Other Settings.
5. If your child is 12 or younger, you can choose Friends or No one. If your child is 13 or older, there are additional options for interaction with other players.

Parents who want additional control should go to the Security section of the Account Settings page. Here, you can set a PIN and other account restrictions.

Can privacy settings alone keep them safe? Mum Amber Petersen learned the answer the hard way.

Petersen’s 7-year-old daughter Brooklyn loved to play Roblox on her iPad. But because the mother of two knew the world’s number-one 3-D gaming site for kids allowed users to interact with strangers - they are called “friends” in the game - she was careful to to do all the right things to protect her daughter.

She read the developer’s website thoroughly, and was comforted to learn the game offered 24-hour moderation to block inappropriate content. She made the effort to set her daughter’s account to the highest level of privacy, blocking conversations and invitation. And she monitored Brooklyn's play, sitting right beside her while she was online.

So you can imagine Petersen’s shock when, one afternoon recently, she glanced at the screen and saw her daughter’s avatar being sexually assaulted by three other players.

Petersen took screenshots and posted them to her Facebook page with a warning to other parents - where it quickly went viral.

I’m struggling with where to begin here because I’m feeling quite traumatized and violated on so many levels."

The 35-year-old former teacher wrote, “Words cannot describe the shock, disgust, and guilt that I am feeling right now, but I’m trying to put those feelings aside so I can get this warning out to others as soon as possible…

"Although I was immediately able to shield my daughter from seeing the entire interaction, I am shuddering to think of what kind of damage this image could have on her psyche, as well as any other child that could potentially be exposed to this.”

The moral of the story is NOT that Roblox is evil. On the contrary, Petersen herself has nothing but praise for how the company handled the incident - tracking down the the perpetrator and permanently banning him from the site.

Parents need to know there are thousands of user-generated games within the Roblox universe, some of them with sexual, violent or horror-related themes.

“Slender Man,” for example, displays bloody operating tables, while “Hotline Roblox” is a game in which players murder one another with knives and guns. Meanwhile, YouTube features literally thousands of videos showing Roblox porn - cartoon nudity, graphic sex and gang rape featuring Roblox avatars.

Many of these are taken down within minutes by the game’s moderators.

Petersen has objected strenuously to media reporting that vilified the Roblox Corporation, which is currently valued at US$2.4 billion and claims 64 million monthly users - many but by no means all of them children.

She is urging mums and dads to take a closer look at their kids’ security settings, to remember that monitoring their online activity is essential - and to encourage them to read books, which, she points out, are 100% hack-proof.

Being a responsible digital parent can feel like a full-time job - but Family Zone can help. Our trusted parental controls will block inappropriate content and let you manage your children's screen-time, study-time and bed-time - all the time.  Learn more at familyzone.com