Digital Citizenship

E-Safety - Roblox

Depending on the age of your child and their online habits, you may already be very familiar with the game ‘Roblox’. For those of you who aren’t, it is an online gaming platform that offers the user the chance to create and play a whole range of different games, many of which are designed by other such users. It can be an incredibly fun game, a super introduction to designing computer games and also a nice way for children to dip their toes into the world of online gaming… but it does need some careful setting up and monitoring to keep it safe and secure!

Roblox is a game with a bit of a bad reputation for various reasons, although the makers have done a lot recently to try to put this right. The main problem is that a lot of it can involve chatting online to other players, which obviously instantly starts alarm bells ringing. It does however have some pretty decent privacy and parental controls settings that help to alleviate this fear. Despite being completely free to play it can also be a little pushy with additional online purchases and without the correct filters does have some questionable content in some of the games.

I would recommend firstly making sure that the age restrictions are set to below 12 years of age, as this automatically filters a lot of the chat. At first I would also recommend enabling Account Restrictions, as this stops all chat functions (or limits to friends only if you choose that option) and limits the in-games they can play to ones that have been carefully approved by the creators. You can then use a Parent-PIN to lock the account so your child can’t make any changes without permission. There are then a number of ways of checking exactly what they have been on by essentially looking at their history, which cannot be deleted. Sorry if that all sounds a little complicated, it does take a little while to get the settings the way you want them, but it is all explained best on their website here:

Roblox Settings

There is also a very handy concise guide attached just here. If you have any questions about Roblox, or any other E-Safety concerns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Mr Adkins
Head of Digital Learning