Roblox Has New Sensitivity Guidelines, Swears it Has Nothing to do With Recent Censorship
Roblox has come under fire in the past for child safety issues, and now the company is attempting to implement new content description related to sensitive issues. However, it’s also made it very clear that this new scheme has absolutely nothing to do with recent industry upheaval, although the timing says otherwise.
Creators of Roblox games, called “Experiences,” have to fill in a Maturity & Compliance Questionnaire when they release their project. This covers the content rating (from Minimal to Restricted) and incorporates questions related to violence, blood, and “scary elements.” Roblox is now set to add a new question related to “Sensitive Issues,” although the company is being vague on what this actually entails.
“We’re introducing a new parental control to give parents additional tools to shape their child’s experience on Roblox,” the company posted on its dev forum on Aug. 4. “Our goal is to help parents decide what content is right for their family, especially for subjects that may require adult guidance.”
“To enable this we’ve added a new ‘Sensitive Issues’ content descriptor for experiences that are primarily themed on current sensitive social, political, or religious issues. This descriptor is not meant to take a stance on any specific issue.”
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Roblox Indulges in Bothsidesism
Following recent bans on Steam and Itch of NSFW content, which Roblox is not acknowledging, the new question will come into effect on Aug. 11. The company does, however, take great pains to stress multiple times that this is not intended, nor taking a stance on, “any specific regulatory requirement or governmental request” or “any sensitive issue.”
There has long been a disconnect between how Roblox looks versus how it can be used, with games made with Roblox running the gamut from harmless gardening sims to jump-scare horror, not to mention the legion of knock-offs that clog its marketplace.
As Roblox prides itself on being a content generation platform for people of all ages and nationalities, this means it also implements a ‘both sides’ mentality. In other words, it tries to implement procedures that can catch harmful content but also allow some leeway, considering that some people may be offended by something that others are not. This is also at the crux of its sensitivity announcement.
“Just as these issues are treated differently by different families, they’re also handled in diverse ways by different cultures, countries, and governments,” the company said in its announcement. “We understand that identifying sensitive issues can be complex and vary greatly by region.”
Roblox has, however, offered a few examples of what could be classed as sensitive topics, including “immigration, capital punishment, gun control, marriage equality, pay equity in sports, prayer in schools, racial profiling, affirmative action, vaccination policies, and reproductive rights.”
Self-Policing And Parental Control
If a parent/guardian comes across an Experience without the Sensitive Issues label and thinks it should have one, then they have to follow the existing procedure. This involves Roblox’s Report Abuse feature, which can be accessed both within an Experience and outside it, and is easily accessible from various screens.
For example, on a game page it’s under the About section, and in other areas it can be accessed via the main menu. Anything reported, whether it’s for a sensitive issue or other content/reason, goes straight to a moderator. Roblox then takes appropriate action, which could range from adding a relevant content warning through to outright banning a game/user, depending on the severity of the issue.
Content warnings are primarily targeted at underage users; Roblox generally counts those under 13 as this, as it’s the cut-off for parental controls. In a report published by Statistia on Aug. 1, 2025, it revealed that Roblox has 39.7 million daily active users under the age of 13.
Parental Controls in Roblox can be applied to a child’s account if the account is linked to the parent’s. Options range from blocking specific Experiences to setting spending limits. However, these only apply (in most regions) to users aged under 13.
Accounts are free to set up and rely on the date of birth entered when signing up to set the default account age rating. As long as a user doesn’t try to access Restricted content, they won’t need to verify their age. It’s also possible to buy Robux, the platform’s in-game currency, without verifying ID as long as a user also has access to a payment method’s details (and verification process, if this is enabled).
Multiple accounts can be set up from the same IP address, so it’s possible for children to open a new one to try and bypass limits set-up by a parent. Roblox does take a dim view of this kind of behavior, though, so if it finds out this sort of thing is happening it will ban the account, and possibly the user.
Sensitivity Matters
The gap between how Roblox polices itself through to how robust it tries to make its policies is sizable. For example, a report by The Guardian in April this year highlighted how underage users can easily contact, and be contacted by, adults on the platform, despite Roblox changing its player communication settings in November 2024.
There’s also the question of what Roblox considers a sensitive issue. Although it repeatedly stresses that it’s not tied to any specific concern, the examples it did highlight were met with considerable pushback from its dev community.
“By default, the new policy restricts access to any experience that is considered to be themed on a sensitive topic,” said Noble_Draconian, a programmer, on the Roblox DevForum site. “This, coupled with the fact that there is no granular control over which sensitive topics a parent can allow, makes the new policy a functional ban on those topics.”
Spathi, a modder, also commented under the original post, with “Can the earth be round in our experiences or is that a sensitive issue that may offend the flat earth community?”
“This policy feels more like kowtowing and self preservation,” added Hutch
LMH_Hutch. “It feels like a veiled attempt at censorship, not any kind of real policy for protecting people, or enabling people to better protect themselves.”
Roblox has tried to clarify its announcement and assuage users’ worries: “Roblox is trying to give parents the tools to make decisions on topics that might require guidance, like social, political, or religious issues that are currently sensitive,” it posted.
“The criteria for these issues are two-fold: They must have polarized viewpoints with little room for compromise. They must evoke a strong emotional response or passionate debate.”
Some users have also been left confused as to how the Sensitive Matters label affects the availability of content, as Experiences marked with this label will be blocked by default. Roblox added: “The policy does not remove content from the platform, but rather adds a label so parents can decide what’s appropriate for their families.”
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