Is Roblox safe for kids? A guide for Australian parents

Roblox is not banned in Australia. It is explicitly exempt from the under-16 social media ban — listed alongside gaming platforms as a service that does not fall under the new law. That does not mean it is risk-free. It means the risk is still there, and the law does not help you with it.

What Roblox actually is

Roblox is not a single game. It is a platform where anyone can build and publish games, and where children play, socialise, buy virtual items and chat with other players. There are over 40 million games on it. Some are tame obstacle courses. Others contain user-generated content that is disturbing, violent or sexually suggestive. Roblox moderates, but the volume is enormous and things slip through.

The in-game chat, friend requests and direct messages are where most of the risk lives — not the games themselves.

Why it's exempt from Australia's ban

The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 targets platforms whose primary purpose is social networking — public feeds, follower counts, algorithmic content. Gaming platforms were deliberately left out. If you want the full picture of what the ban doesn't cover, we've written a separate guide on that.

• Roblox — exempt
• Steam — exempt
• Minecraft — exempt
• Discord — exempt

Discord is in a similar position — exempt from the ban but with its own risks around open servers and stranger contact. If your child uses both, see our guide on whether Discord is safe for kids.

The real risks to know about

• Stranger contact. By default, anyone can send your child a friend request or chat with them in-game. This is how most concerning contact starts — not with a dramatic approach, but with a friendly game partner who slowly builds trust. Gaming platforms are also a documented vector for sextortion, particularly targeting boys through financial leverage once private contact is established.
• Inappropriate user-generated content. Roblox's content rating system does not catch everything. Some games contain graphic content, mature themes or references that are not appropriate for young children.
• In-app spending. Robux — Roblox's virtual currency — is designed to be spent. Without purchase approval turned on, a child can rack up significant charges through their linked app store account.
• Voice chat. Roblox has a verified voice chat feature available to older users. It requires age verification but that can be bypassed with a parent's ID details.

How to set Roblox up more safely

• Enable Account Restrictions. In your child's Roblox account settings, Account Restrictions locks them to a curated list of age-appropriate content and disables most chat with strangers.
• Set contact settings to Friends only. Under Privacy settings, change who can chat, who can send messages, and who can send friend requests to "Friends" only. This is the single most effective change you can make.
• Turn off chat for younger children. For children under about 10, disabling chat entirely is reasonable and straightforward in the privacy settings.
• Require purchase approval. In your Apple or Google account, set it so all purchases require your biometric or password. This applies to Robux as well as any other app spend.
• Talk about who they're playing with. Ask regularly. Kids in a healthy relationship with a parent will tell you — but only if you ask without it feeling like an interrogation.

A note from us

Roblox is one of the main reasons we built Aunty Bea. The social media ban is a meaningful step — but our kids were never going to stop playing Roblox, and the strangers-with-friend-requests problem doesn't go away just because the government addressed Instagram. This is exactly the gap the ban leaves open. If you want to understand how stranger contact in games can escalate, our guide on online grooming warning signs explains the pattern and what to watch for.