Roblox Is Trying to Make Itself Safer for Kids

By Jill Murphy, Common Sense Media
Edition #34 | October 16, 2026

Roblox Has a Kids Mode Now. Is It Enough?

If you have a 5- to 8-year-old, there's a good chance Roblox is already part of your life, or sitting very high on a wishlist somewhere in your house. So it's worth knowing that Roblox now sorts players into different account types by age. Kids under 9 get Roblox Kids, 9- to 15-year-olds get Roblox Select, and users 16 and older get standard accounts.

For the youngest players, kids accounts limit content to games rated "Minimal" or "Mild," turn off chat by default, and only include games that have gone through a multi-step review. For 9- to 15-year-olds, chat is available but tightly restricted. Kids can only talk with users close to their own age, messages are filtered, and contacts are limited to friends who a parent has approved. And since January, Roblox has required facial age verification for all users who want to chat.

Yes, these are worthy attempts at change, but as anyone who has watched a kid find a workaround knows (and yes, I'm raising my hand here), settings are only as good as the follow-through. Age checks aren't foolproof, and some kids have used photos of older siblings or parents to get past them. It's also easy for them to end up in the wrong account type because of a birthday entered years ago back when we were just trying to get the game downloaded before dinner. None of this means you need to panic. It just means the new protections work best when you know which ones your child actually has.

Tonight's to-do: Take five minutes to check your kid's Roblox settings together. Look at which account type they're in, whether chat is on, and who's on their friends list. Then ask them to show you their favorite game. You'll learn more from that tour than from any settings page.

Worth bookmarking:

→ Parents' Ultimate Guide: How to Set Parent Controls on Roblox

The Scary Stuff They Didn't Choose to See

I love Halloween, and for all kids, a little spooky is part of the fun. What can get tricky to plan for is the more scary stuff our kids never chose to see in the first place.

This time of year, it's everywhere. Right now, the No. 1 movie in the country is horror film Other Mommy. You can open a streaming app looking for something completely harmless and get a horror trailer before anyone has touched the remote. Even kids who have never seen a horror movie have often seen pieces of one. Those scenes get clipped into TikToks and YouTube Shorts, stripped of context, set to music, and pushed into feeds. A 7-year-old can end up seeing the worst 10 seconds of a movie they would never sit through.

We can't catch all of it, but we can cut down on some of the surprises. Most streaming services let you turn off autoplaying previews in your profile or app settings. Kids' profiles help with little ones, and turning off autoplay on YouTube helps too. It won't stop everything, but it gives you some control over what plays in your own living room.

And when something slips through, as it will, your reaction matters more than the clip. Here are a few ways to start the conversation:

Littles (3–6):
"That looked a little scary. Do you want to tell me about it?"
At this age, comfort comes first. It can also help to explain that movies are made with cameras, costumes, makeup, and people pretending, and that scary things can't come out of the screen.

Bigs (7–10):
"What did you see, and where did you see it?"
Kids this age usually know it's not real, but that doesn't mean the feelings disappear, especially at bedtime. Let them admit they're scared without teasing. If they're interested, show them how music, editing, and camera tricks make scenes feel more intense.

Tweens (11–13):
"Was that from the whole movie, or a clip someone edited?"
This is a great age to talk about how online edits are built to shock, and why a moment can feel scarier when it's pulled out of its story. If they're curious about horror, look up the review together first.

Teens (14+):
"What are your friends watching right now? Is it actually good, or just intense?"
Many teens love a good scare, and that's OK. Stay curious about what they're choosing, and let them know they can always come to you if something got under their skin more than they expected.

Tonight's to-do: Turn off autoplaying previews on your main streaming profile. Then pick a Halloween movie together, with the youngest person watching in mind:

→ Best Halloween Movies for Kids: scary (but not too scary) picks, sorted by age

→ Best Horror Movies: for teens who want more edge

→ Scary Movies for Kids: the in-between list for brave middle schoolers

The Snap Saga: The Part I Didn't Want to Write

I owe my daughter an apology.

I let her on too much, too soon, and gave her more access than she was ready for, and her actions made that clear. I know my daughter. She's curious (what I used to call sneaky), and I knew better. So why didn't I do better? That's the question I keep asking myself, and I don't think I have a tidy answer yet.

What I can tell you is that it wasn't only the social apps that carried her away. Her texts had taken a turn too, toward something I can only describe as unfamiliar, and it was the kind of discovery that makes your stomach drop a little before your brain catches up.

So I finally took my own advice, the advice I've shared with so many of you: It's never too late to start over. For now, she has a basic phone. She'll keep it until she can tell the difference between a real friend and someone showing misogynistic behavior, and until she can recognize when "just a joke" is actually a request that could do real damage. I honestly can't tell her when that will be, and in her more reflective moments, she admits she can't either.

Through all of this, I've wanted her to understand that there was a lack of accountability on all sides, and that the fault isn't hers alone. During one of our many conversations, I told her I loved her, and she said, "Do you? Because I don't think I like myself right now." Those words have been playing on repeat in my head every day since, and I can't shake the feeling that I let her down.

But that moment also opened the door to something real. She admitted she's been acting like someone she doesn't want to be, which is a hard thing for anyone to say out loud, let alone a 13-year-old saying it to her mom. Her behavior was leading somewhere that didn't reflect our values and, at the core, was contributing to poor self-esteem. There were no illegal activities, dangerous behaviors, or physical (photos) concerns. This isn't the end of the story, but it is where we get to start over, together.

Parents of 13-year-olds, please take it from me:

Check texts, including the deleted ones. On iPhone, deleted messages stay under Messages → Edit → Show Recently Deleted for up to 30 days, and deleted photos stay in Photos → Albums → Recently Deleted for the same 30 days. Take a breath before you start, and try not to correct everything you read. Focus on the red flags, especially anything that looks very intentionally deleted.

On Snapchat, check "My Eyes Only." This is a passcode-locked folder inside Snapchat's Memories, separate from the phone's camera roll. It can hold photos your teen has sent, as well as photos saved from others, and you'll likely need your teen to open it with you.

In contacts, look over the list. If your child is talking with kids who aren't treating them well, it's OK to block or delete those contacts. On iPhone, Screen Time's Communication Limits let you require your approval before new contacts are added.

Find support when you need it. You don't have to sort through this alone, and your child's school counselor or pediatrician is a great place to start. If you come across a sexual image of a minor, please don't screenshot, forward, or save it, even to keep as proof. NCMEC's free Take It Down tool (takeitdown.ncmec.org) can help get it removed.

Here's the part that stings the most: Someone did tell me all of this. I did. I've been writing these tips, sharing them with friends, and nodding along with so many of you who wrote in about Snap. I just didn't follow my own advice when it was my own kid. I know how cliché "do as I say, not as I do" sounds, and believe me, I've rolled my eyes at myself more than once this week. But maybe that's exactly the point. Knowing better and doing better are two very different things, and the space between them is where most of us parents actually live. So consider this your sign to close that gap a little sooner than I did.

One More Thing

Although parenting doesn't come with a reset button, thankfully, we get plenty of chances to try again. I'm grateful for the honest conversations this community makes possible. Keep sharing what's happening in your homes. I'm always listening, and there's a good chance another parent needs to hear it, too.

Warmly,

—Jill