Roblox taps Persona to estimate users' ages and verify they are 13+, renames Friends to Connections, and says only users over 13 can message Trusted Connections
Read the full story: www.wired.com/story/roblox... Megan Farokhmanesh / @megannicolett : Talked to Roblox's chief safety officer Matt Kaufman about their new age verification system and what 13-year-old has a government-issued ID. “That is a problem,” he says. “In North America or maybe the United States in particular, that's not common.” www.wired.com/story/roblox... @wired.com : Roblox will scan video selfies of teens to assess their ages as part of a new “Trusted Connections” feature that gives users access to unfiltered chatting with people they know. www.wired.com/story/roblox... Patrick Klepek / @patrickklepek : Roblox is becoming more like Discord and leveraging the kind of “age recognition” technology that's likely to be all over the internet soon. The latest details on the new safety features that Roblox is pitching: www.crossplay.news/p/new-roblox... @trixter.retro.pizza.ap.brid.gy : Watching someone from Roblox talk about using AI for age verification of selfies for teenagers, thinking about that time when I was 17 that someone at the airport boarding gate asked if I was over 12. 🙃 @likethe309 : Watching GMA because something a friend made will be on, but in the meantime there's a story about Roblox doing new age verification. — And here's the thing. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN THEY'RE MAKING KIDS UPLOAD SELFIES AND AI DETERMINES IF THEY'RE THE AGE THEY SAY THEY ARE X: @reflectedocean : @RealSchlep Also what about 13+ who look younger than they are? I'm 16 and have had people think I'm like 12 I'd rather die than put my id on fucking roblox too cause why does ROBLOX of all things need that (also risks of a data breach) @macie_rbx17 : @Roblox_RTC Well,this probably not gonna be good for anyone who looks younger than they are. I know it definitely won't say my right age David Baszucki / @davidbaszucki : Today we're rolling out our vision for age-based communication, which includes age-estimation technology and the ability for users over 13 to chat more freely. https://corp.roblox.com/... [video] Forums: r/gamingnews : Roblox will require a facial scan or government ID to have unfiltered chats | Teens will have to prove they are older than 13 to make ‘Trusted Connections’ they can chat more freely with. r/technology : Roblox will require a facial scan or government ID to have unfiltered chats | Teens will have to prove they are older than 13 to make ‘Trusted Connections’ they can chat more freely with. r/technews : Roblox will require a facial scan or government ID to have unfiltered chats | Teens will have to prove they are older than 13 to make ‘Trusted Connections’ they can chat more freely with.
Context & Ripple Effects
Roblox is recasting social access as a safety-controlled layer: the earlier initial Persona-backed age-check rollout tied more permissive messaging to a 13+ threshold while changing the language around user relationships from Friends to Connections.
The move matters because later coverage shows the same approach broadening from a limited messaging feature toward communication tools more generally, including a stated plan to extend age checks across communications.
First-order effects
- Users seeking unfiltered messages through Trusted Connections must clear Roblox’s age assessment or provide accepted verification; users assessed below 13 cannot use that messaging path.
- Persona becomes part of Roblox’s access-control stack for communication, while the Connections label distinguishes ordinary social links from the more trusted messaging tier.
Second-order effects
- Age verification becomes a new point of friction in Roblox’s social experience, particularly where users cannot readily supply government ID, making the accuracy and accessibility of the selfie-based route operationally important.
- A feature-level gate establishes the mechanism for wider communication controls, consistent with Roblox’s later move toward requiring age estimation for chat access.
Third-order effects
- If expanded, facial age estimation could turn age into a persistent permission signal for platform communication rather than a one-time account field.
- That shift makes error handling and user recourse central platform-governance issues: subsequent reporting on age-estimation misidentifications shows that access decisions can be contested when the system is used at scale.
The trend: Youth-oriented platforms are moving from self-declared ages toward verification-backed, age-tiered access to social and communication features.