Two children’s advocacy groups requested the US Federal Trade Commission investigate Roblox for allegedly unfair and deceptive practices. The groups asked the FTC to determine whether Roblox violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. The complaint alleges Roblox misleads the public about platform safety and unfairly pressures young users to spend money for in-game privileges. Roblox strongly disputes the allegations. Roblox says US users must complete an age check before chatting and that minors can only chat with users close to their own age. Roblox describes its age-verification system as facial-estimation through Persona, which assigns users to one of six age brackets and is designed to delete biometric data after processing. The FTC declined to comment.
"Two children's advocacy groups, Fairplay and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation , asked the US Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday to investigate Roblox, Reuters reported , in a letter that calls the gaming platform's design features and marketing techniques 'unfair and deceptive'. The groups have asked the agency to determine whether Roblox has violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive practices affecting commerce. The two-strand complaint, on the letter's account, is that Roblox is deceiving the public about the safety of its platform and that it unfairly pressures young users to spend money to access in-game privileges."
"Roblox said it 'strongly disputes' the claims in the letter. A company spokesperson said US users are required to complete an age check before being able to chat with other players, and that minors can only chat with users close to their own age. The age-verification architecture sits on the facial-estimation system Roblox introduced earlier this year through Persona, which places users into one of six age brackets and is supposed to delete the underlying biometric data after processing."
"The groups have filed the underlying materials with the FTC under docket 2026-00096. An FTC spokesperson declined to comment to Reuters. The complaint extends a regulatory and litigation arc that has been building around the platform over the past twelve months. Roblox is currently defending more than 140 lawsuits in US federal court, accusing it of knowingly facilitating child sexual exploitation, with claimants saying the p"
Read at TNW | Government-Policy
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