What is Roblox 101?
A Brief Parent’s Guide to the Roblox platform: games, friends, risks
If you’ve got children between the ages of 7 and 14, chances are you’ve heard them talk about Roblox. It’s one of the most popular gaming platforms in the world, with over 70 million daily active users in 2025, and many of them are children. During the 2020 COVID lockdown Roblox claimed that half of all Americans under the age of 16 had an account.
Roblox isn’t a single game. It’s a platform, like a digital playground, where users can create their own characters, explore millions of user-made games, and chat with friends. It’s the perfect game for kids to express their creativity and play at home with their friends.
Here’s what parents need to know.
What Roblox Actually Is
Roblox is a platform, not just one game.
Its content is user generated, and people who spend time making games/experiences (developers) can be paid if they are successful enough
Kids download the free app (available on phones, tablets, PC, Xbox) and create an avatar.
They can then join millions of “experiences” created by other users. These range from obstacle courses (‘obbies’) to roleplay worlds like ‘Brookhaven’.
Roblox also has its own currency, Robux, which kids use to buy outfits, items, or access special games. This currency costs real money, either through direct purchase, premium subscriptions or other means, and it can also be converted back to real money through the platform.
Why Kids Love Roblox
Creativity: Anyone can design their own world or game using Roblox Studio.
Socialising: Roblox is more than just the games, its also a form of social media - a space away from school, parents and adults to enjoy with their friends.
Trends: Popular YouTubers and streamers showcase Roblox games, which drives kids to try them.
Endless content: There’s always something new to discover, and it’s free to start.
The Risks Parents Should Know
Strangers and Chats
Roblox allows text chat in games. Children may receive friend requests or messages from strangers. Roblox claims to use AI to scan every message on the platform, but even this has limitations.
Grooming attempts have been documented.
Invites and offers to move conversations off-platform, ie to Discord or elsewhere, are a known issue.
In-app purchases (Robux)
Kids often pressure parents for Robux to buy virtual items.
Many games are little more than a hyperstimulating loop of microtransactions, designed to constantly push opportunities to spend.
Inappropriate content
While Roblox technically has moderation and oversight features, sexually inappropriate or violent user-made games can slip through.
Some roleplay games (e.g., dating simulators) are not age-appropriate.
Many developers earn money by placing real advertisments inside their games, sometimes resulting in games looking and feeling more like ad-saturated marketplaces.
While the platform hosts many well-designed games and spaces, a lot of experiences are just ‘junk’ content - making use of familiar characters like Sonic or Spongebob but with no meaningful way to engage except through spending Robux.
Scams and exploits
Fake “free Robux” offers are common both inside Roblox and on YouTube/TikTok.
Some games mislead children into giving away account info.
Safety Settings for Parents
Roblox does have parental controls, but they need to be turned on.
Ensure their age: when opening a new account you must ensure their age is set correctly. Roblox has content moderation features for ages ‘below 9’, ‘9-13’, ‘13-17’.
Parent linked accounts: Roblox’s main safety features come from their own content monitoring (human and AI), and their parental oversight mechanism.
Set up your own account as an adult
Ask your child to send a request to you for parental oversight
When linked, parents can verify the child’s age and manage important features such as: content maturity cutoff, disable direct messaging or limit to close friends, enforce a spending limit and so on.
Check in: Since all content on the platform is user created, there are always new experiences every hour. Checking in about screen time, asking about any attempts from strangers to scam, harass or move conversations off-platform and reminders about risks every once in a while is important.
Talking to Your Kids About Roblox
Aside from the parental safety features, the best defence is to talk to your children openly but reassuringly about the risks.
Ask which games they enjoy and why.
Join them for a session to see what it’s like.
Explain the risks of chatting with strangers and clicking on “free Robux” links.
The DigiShield Takeaway
Roblox can be a wonderful creative outlet and social platform for kids, but only if parents stay informed and involved. Best to think of it like a series of playgrounds in a big city: there’s fun, but you wouldn’t let your child wander unsupervised.