Roblox has announced changes to its content-filtering system to “maintain civility” in chats.
As part of the move, Roblox will roll out real-time AI-powered chat rephrasing that automatically replaces swear words with more polite alternatives. Previously, the system displayed hashtags when banned words were used. Going forward, the AI will translate profanities “into more respectful language that remains closer to the user’s original intent,” Roblox said.
The AI-powered rephrasing will also recognize profanities when they are expressed using abbreviations, numbers, or symbols. “Hurry TF up,” for example, will get rewritten as “Hurry up.”
“This approach reduces friction in chat while maintaining the standards that help keep our community civil,” says Rajiv Bhatia, Roblox’s VP for user and discovery product.
Every time Roblox’s AI rephrases a message in chat, all group members will be notified of it. At launch, the feature is exclusive to in-game chats between age-verified users. It will work with all 16 languages supported by Roblox’s automatic translation tool, including English, Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese, Arabic, and German.
Roblox currently has 151.5 million daily active users, most of them minors. Recent changes come after Texas, Louisiana, and Kentucky sued the platform over allegations that it’s become a “breeding ground for predators.”
A key part of that effort has been the introduction of age verification. Users worldwide are now required to undergo facial checks to use chat features. The checks are processed by a third-party vendor named Persona. After verification, users are assigned to one of six age groups and are only allowed to interact with others in their age group or a similar one.
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The system reportedly got off to a chaotic start, with claims that parents were verifying on behalf of their kids and that kids were getting mislabeled as adults. Roblox then added an option to reset verification in Account Settings.
Age verification remains mandatory for chat features on Roblox. About 45% of the platform’s users had completed the facial checks by February.
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Jibin is a tech news writer based out of Ahmedabad, India. Previously, he served as the editor of iGeeksBlog and is a self-proclaimed tech enthusiast who loves breaking down complex information for a broader audience.
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