Reports of child grooming and vile content on popular game service Roblox has “alarmed” the communications minister, Anika Wells, who has demanded the platform explain how it is addressing sexual and self-harm material, and that its PG rating be examined by the Australian Classification Board.
The eSafety commissioner has also written to the game platform, saying it plans to test the promises it made about keeping children safe online, including disabling chat features and making underage accounts private.
“We remain highly concerned by ongoing reports regarding the exploitation of children on the Roblox service, and exposure to harmful material,” the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said.
Roblox has come under scrutiny after reports that children can be exposed to inappropriate content on the platform, which allows users to create their own mini-games inside the system.
Guardian Australia published a report last November documenting a week of virtual sexual harassment and violence. While playing as an eight-year-old girl, the reporter was given a sexualised avatar, cyberbullied, aggressively killed, sexually assaulted and shat on – all with parental control settings in place.
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While platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Kick were included in Australia’s under-16s social media ban, gaming sites such as Roblox were not.
Wells and her department were investigating other levers to regulate services such as Roblox.
The minister has written to Roblox requesting an urgent meeting, saying she was “alarmed by reports of children being exposed to graphic and gratuitous user-generated content on the platform, including sexually explicit and suicidal material”.
“Even more disturbing are ongoing reports and concerns about children being approached and groomed by predators, who actively seek to exploit their curiosity and innocence,” she said in the letter.
Guardian Australia understands Roblox has not yet responded to the letter. In a statement on Tuesday, a Roblox spokesperson said it was committed to keeping users safe, saying it had recently rolled out features like age checking systems, and was working with Australian law enforcement to keep users safe.
“We look forward to the opportunity to inform the minister of the steps we take to help keep our community safe. Roblox has robust safety policies and processes to help protect users that go beyond many other platforms, and advanced safeguards that monitor for harmful content and communications,” they said.
“While no system is perfect, our commitment to safety never ends, and we continue to strengthen protections to help keep users safe.”
In her letter, Wells pointed to media reports alleging children can access spaces on the game meant for adults which include explicit sexual content, and charges laid against a Queensland man accused of grooming hundreds of children on platforms such as Roblox, Fortnite and Snapchat.
Wells has also asked the eSafety commissioner about any short-term measures that could be taken, and separately has written to the classification board to ask if Roblox’s PG rating remains appropriate.
In the letter to Roblox, Wells noted the company had worked with the eSafety commissioner on additional safety measures for children but that issues appeared to continue.
“This is untenable, and these issues are of deep concern to many Australians parents and carers,” she wrote, saying she was keen to hear what Roblox was doing to prevent adults contacting children, and to protect children from inappropriate experiences.
The eSafety office said it had also written to Roblox last week, saying it planned to test how the platform was complying with commitments such as making under-16s private by default, new tools to prevent adult users from contacting children and restricting chat features. After that testing, eSafety foreshadowed it “may take further action under the Online Safety Act”.
“I welcome the minister for communications’ correspondence and the Australian government’s support on this important issue as we use all of the tools available to us to keep Australian kids safe online,” Inman Grant said.
