Roblox's age verification system, touted as a response to the platform's child predator problem, has hit a snag. In its first week of operation, the feature has misclassified users, including a 23-year-old who was deemed an adult and another who claimed an 18-year-old was mistakenly labeled as a minor.
The issue is multifaceted. On one hand, some users have found ways to bypass the system by using fake avatar images or photos that trick the algorithm into thinking they're older than they actually are. One user even shared a photo of Kurt Cobain and was classified as an adult.
On the other hand, there have been reports of parents providing age checks on behalf of their children, which has resulted in some minors being placed in the 21+ category. Roblox has acknowledged this issue and stated that it's working on solutions to address it.
The platform's developer community is also up in arms about the update. Thousands of negative comments have been flooding the dev forum, with many developers calling for the entire update to be reversed. One developer even shared a graph showing that the percentage of users using the chat feature dropped from 90% to 36.5%.
With the platform's survival potentially hanging in the balance, Roblox has its work cut out for it. The company must now figure out how to strike a balance between keeping predators at bay and not disrupting the experience of legitimate users.
The situation is far from ideal, with some users describing games on the platform as feeling "lifeless" or like a "total ghost town." It remains to be seen whether Roblox can get its age verification system back on track without causing further disruption.
The issue is multifaceted. On one hand, some users have found ways to bypass the system by using fake avatar images or photos that trick the algorithm into thinking they're older than they actually are. One user even shared a photo of Kurt Cobain and was classified as an adult.
On the other hand, there have been reports of parents providing age checks on behalf of their children, which has resulted in some minors being placed in the 21+ category. Roblox has acknowledged this issue and stated that it's working on solutions to address it.
The platform's developer community is also up in arms about the update. Thousands of negative comments have been flooding the dev forum, with many developers calling for the entire update to be reversed. One developer even shared a graph showing that the percentage of users using the chat feature dropped from 90% to 36.5%.
With the platform's survival potentially hanging in the balance, Roblox has its work cut out for it. The company must now figure out how to strike a balance between keeping predators at bay and not disrupting the experience of legitimate users.
The situation is far from ideal, with some users describing games on the platform as feeling "lifeless" or like a "total ghost town." It remains to be seen whether Roblox can get its age verification system back on track without causing further disruption.
their new age verification system is already causing more problems than it's solving... it's like they're playing whack a mole 
thousands of devs are freaking out about the update and now we got parents trying to sneak their kids past the system 
it's like they need to take a step back and rethink this whole thing. i mean, who thought it was a good idea to share kurt cobain's photo on the platform? 
idk what roblox is going to do next, but hopefully they can figure it out before it's too late 
I mean, I get it, they wanna keep the kids safe and all, but come on! My 18-year-old kid was trying to join a game yesterday and they flagged them as a minor because of some weird error. I had to spend an hour on the phone with their support team explaining that my kid is totally an adult 
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. I mean, come on, using fake avatar pics or having parents do age checks for you is some basic stuff that anyone with half a brain can figure out 
. And now the devs are losing thousands of users over it? That's just a mess. Roblox needs to get its act together and find a solution that actually works, not just slap on another bandaid every time something goes wrong 
. I mean, who comes up with this stuff? Fake avatar images and Kurt Cobain photos? 
. Maybe they need to tweak the algorithm or add more verification steps... whatever it takes to get this thing working properly 
. It's like, can't we all just have a happy middle ground here? 
like, can't they see that this is a huge problem and that we need some kinda balance here? 
it's not just about kids being predators or whatever... it's about creating a safe space for everyone who uses the platform.
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