Online gaming safety: check the age your child entered
By Ray & Renie Robinson, Aunty Bea · Updated October 2026
About 9 in 10 Australian children aged 8 to 17 have played online games, according to eSafety. In October 2026
eSafety published a report on how Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite and Steam keep children safe, and where they
don't. This guide sums up what it found and gives you one ten-minute job to do this week: check the age
your child's game accounts think they are, and the settings that come with it.
What eSafety looked at
In April 2026 eSafety used its legal powers to require Roblox, Epic Games (Fortnite), Mojang (Minecraft) and
Valve (Steam) to explain how they protect children. The report covers October 2025 to March 2026. Online games
are not covered by the under-16 social media ban,
because services whose main purpose is gaming are excluded. That makes the games' own settings, and yours, the
main line of defence.
The big finding: the age your child typed in
Minecraft and Fortnite mostly relied on the age a player entered when they signed up. eSafety found that a player
who said they were 18 or older could reach features meant for adults without any further check:
Minecraft: chat with players of any age, and join unmoderated servers run by third parties.
Fortnite: private text chats that were not covered by Epic's default safety tools for chats involving children.
Children often type a made-up birthday to get past a sign-up screen, or an older sibling sets the account up. So
the first thing to check is not a setting deep in a menu. It's whether the game thinks your child is a child.
Most parental controls are switched off
Roblox told eSafety that only 4% of Australian under-18 accounts had parental controls on. On Steam,
accounts with parental controls made up about 4% of monthly users. The tools exist; most families just haven't
connected them. Linking your own account takes a few minutes and is the single biggest improvement you can make.
Minecraft: what to check
Minecraft uses a Microsoft account. eSafety found Australian Microsoft accounts for under-18s block multiplayer and
chat by default unless a parent turns them on, which is a good starting point if the account was set up as a child's.
Sign in at account.xbox.com/settings with your parent account and choose your child.
On the Online Safety tab, decide whether they can join multiplayer games, create and join clubs (this includes Realms), and add friends.
On the Privacy tab, set who can communicate with them by voice, text or invites: Everyone, Friends or Block.
Press Submit before switching tabs, or your changes are lost.
eSafety reports that Fortnite places Australian players who say they are under 16 into a Cabined Account,
with voice and text chat off until a parent gives consent. That only works if the birthday entered was real.
Look for an email titled "Your Child Created an Epic Games Account". It can be resent from the Epic account portal under "Request Parental Permission".
In parental controls, set voice and text chat to Friends Only or Nobody.
Set a parental controls PIN and require it for friend requests and purchases.
Since December 2025, Roblox users in Australia must complete an age check before they can chat at all. In August 2026
Roblox also gave eSafety a court-enforceable undertaking to make children's accounts private by default and stop adults
contacting children they don't know without parental consent. It has three months to put that in place.
On your child's account, go to Settings > Parental Controls > Add parent and enter your email, then verify yourself.
Under Communication, turn experience chat and direct chat on or off, and limit voice to trusted friends or no one.
Use the maturity setting and blocked games list to limit what they can play.
eSafety's findings on Steam were the starkest. Valve was the only company that used no hash-matching to find known child
abuse material, had no proactive detection of harm in chat beyond a tool that mainly blocked scam links, and had no default
safety settings for children's accounts in Australia. If your child uses Steam, the settings are entirely up to you.
Create a Steam Family (Account Details > Family Management) and add your child as a Child member.
Under Family Management, choose Manage, open your child, and switch on parental controls for games, store, community and chat.
The risks in games are mostly about who your child talks to, not the game itself. A common pattern is friendly contact
in a game, then a request to move to a private app like Discord. Our guides on
online grooming,
sextortion and
sadistic online exploitation cover the warning signs.
If something worrying happens: screenshot the username and messages, report the player in the game, then block them.
If it involves sexual content or threats to a child, report to the ACCCE at accce.gov.au/report.
If a child is in immediate danger, call 000. Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800) is free and open 24/7.
These services are Australian. If you are outside Australia, please contact your local equivalent, or your local emergency number if someone is in immediate danger.
Where Aunty Bea fits
Aunty Bea's Complete Protection can switch off Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite and Steam on the phone or tablet it's set up on,
one switch per app, if you decide a game isn't right for your child yet. It can't reach a games console or another device,
so the in-game settings above still matter most.
Frequently asked questions
No. Services whose main purpose is online gaming are excluded. eSafety lists Roblox and Steam as not age-restricted, and Minecraft and Fortnite are gaming services too.
eSafety found Minecraft and Fortnite mostly rely on the age a player types in. A child who claimed to be 18 or older could reach features meant for adults, including unmoderated third-party Minecraft servers and Fortnite private chats without Epic's default child-safety tools.
Often not. Roblox told eSafety that only 4% of Australian under-18 accounts had parental controls switched on.
Each had gaps, but Steam stood out: Valve was the only company that used no hash-matching to detect known child abuse material, had no proactive detection of harm in chat beyond a scam-link tool, and had no default safety settings for children's accounts in Australia.
Screenshot the username and messages, report the player in the game, then block them. If it involves sexual content or threats to a child, report to the ACCCE at accce.gov.au/report. Call 000 if a child is in immediate danger.
Sources: eSafety, "Playing it safe" transparency report and media release (Oct 2026); eSafety, Roblox enforceable
undertaking (Aug 2026) and which platforms are age-restricted (Sep 2026); Minecraft, Xbox, Epic Games, Roblox and Steam
official parental controls pages (checked Oct 2026).
Ten minutes this week: check the birthday on each game account, link your parent account, and set chat to friends only.