Age-verification is all the rage these days. Governments around the world are putting the pressure on tech companies to make sure users are actually the age they should be in order to access their services. Sometimes, that means uploading an ID to prove your age; other times, it involves an AI system guessing how old you are based on your appearance, activity, and behavior.
Roblox is the latest platform to roll out new age-verification rules, following intense criticism from parents, researchers, and even attorneys general, who, among other claims, assert that Roblox enables predators to connect with children via the platform. In response, the company announced new age-verification rules last September and November before rolling them out in select countries in December. This week, Roblox put them into effect in the U.S. That all sounds good—the problem is, the system is a bit of a disaster.
How Roblox’s age verification system should work
To verify your age on Roblox, you first complete a “Facial Age Estimation,” which uses your device’s camera to scan your face within the Roblox app. All photos and video sent through this verification system are forwarded to Persona, an age-verification service, and are subsequently deleted, according to Roblox. (If you’re 13 or older, you can also submit an ID to verify your age instead.)
If you verify via ID, the system will know your age based on what’s printed on your documents. However, the age-verification service through Persona simply estimates your age from your face scan. Say you’re 15—after the face scan, the system might estimate that you’re between 13 and 15. Once the system knows (or thinks it knows) how old you are, it will allow you to chat with other Roblox users within your appropriate age group, as well as with groups that are nearby. Age groups are segmented as follows: 9-12, 13-15, 16-17, 18-20, 21+. (Users under nine cannot access chat features at all.) If you don’t want to verify your age, you don’t have to. However, you won’t have access to any chat functionality.
Users 13 and older can chat with users outside their age range as long as they establish those chats through Roblox’s Trusted Connections system. They can either add users via their phone’s contacts app, or by scanning a QR code in-person to establish trust. Roblox says that a 12-year-old, for example, can chat with users 15 and younger, since that’s the next age group in line, but won’t be able to chat with users 16 and older. An 18-year-old, on the other hand, can chat with users 16 and older, but could also chat with younger users if they first add them as Trusted Connections.
I see where Roblox is coming from here, to a degree. It makes sense to keep kids chatting with users their own age, but also allow room for close family members and friends to connect. I’m not crazy about some of these age pairings (is it really appropriate for 15-year-olds to be chatting with 9-year-olds?), but seeing as previous policies allowed anyone to chat with anyone, it’s a step in the right direction—or would be, if the system actually worked.
How Roblox’s age-verification is actually working (or not)
As reported by WIRED, Roblox’s age-verification system isn’t exactly operating as intended. In fact, it’s a mess. There are issues across the board, from failures in the age verification system itself, to users finding workarounds to fake their ages.
What do you think so far?
WIRED found multiple users selling age-verified accounts on eBay to minors as young as nine for just $4. Some parents have also apparently given their kids permission to be verified as 21+, even when those kids are not that old yet. This child has his mother scan her face for him, giving him full access to the adult Roblox chat. If a child’s parent won’t cooperate, no problem: They can just use an avatar or photo of an adult to trick the system, or even draw a fake beard on themselves to get an 18+ estimation.
Users are unhappy with the system too. This Reddit thread is full of players who are frustrated by the age-verification rules, either because the verification violates their privacy, or because they can’t get placed into the right age group—and, thus, are locked out of talking with their friends. What’s worse, some are being identified as much younger or much older than they actually are, leading to older teens being placed in chats with young kids, or vice versa—the exact situation Roblox claims it is trying to avoid. This user claims their 10-year-old sister was estimated to be between 18 and 20, while another says they were placed in the 13- to 16-year-old age group despite their “full-ass beard.” One user even claims they were banned for telling a child to stay out of the 18+ chat.
Roblox is aware of these and many other issues, and on it’s developer forum the company announced a series of updates to address them. They include a new ability for parents to correct their kids’ age if they were identified incorrectly, as well as an upcoming update to prevent parents from falsifying their kids’ ages. But it’s yet more evidence that AI age verification systems are not the perfect solution so many companies are touting them as. No one wants to put kids in harm’s way, but there has to be a better system in place than these, which jeopardize user privacy, break core experiences, and can even inadvertently put kids in chats with users they shouldn’t be talking to.
