Roblox chat, friends and strangers
How chat works on Roblox, how offenders use it, the red flags in chat, and how to set chat and friend settings for your child's age.
- Offenders use popular games to meet children, then try to move them to other apps.
- Set chat to friends only or off for younger children, and review the friends list together.
- The biggest red flags: offers of Robux, requests to move to Discord or Snapchat, and requests for secrecy or photos.
Chat is part of what makes Roblox fun: kids coordinate in games, joke with friends and meet other players. It's also how most serious harm on Roblox begins.
How chat works
Roblox has several kinds of communication, depending on age and settings:
- In-experience chat: text chat inside a game, visible to other players
- Private messaging and party chat with friends
- Voice chat in some experiences, for older, age-checked users
Roblox filters chat to block personal details, phone numbers and inappropriate language, and applies stricter limits to younger users. Roblox also uses age checks to limit chat between users of very different ages. These systems help, but they don't catch everything: people find ways to hint, use code words, or move the conversation elsewhere.
How offenders use games
Offenders, often posing as children, use popular games to:
- Join the same experiences as children
- Befriend them, help them in games, give them Robux or items
- Build trust and a sense of special friendship
- Ask them to move to another app, such as Discord, Snapchat, Messenger or Telegram, where there's less moderation
- Escalate to sexual conversation, requests for photos, or attempts to meet
See online grooming warning signs.
Red flags in chat
Teach your child that these are warning signs:
- Offers of free Robux, items or gifts
- "Add me on Discord / Snap / Messenger"
- "Don't tell your parents"
- Questions about age, location, school or whether they're alone
- Compliments about their looks, or asking what they look like
- Requests for photos or video calls
- Someone who seems much older
Settings by age
| Age | Suggested chat setting |
|---|---|
| Under 9 | Chat off |
| 9 to 12 | Chat with friends only; review friends together |
| 13 to 15 | Chat on with friends and in experiences; no voice chat, or voice with friends only |
| 16+ | More open, with conversations about red flags |
See how to set up Roblox parental controls.
A simple rule
"Roblox friends stay in Roblox." No moving to other apps with people you haven't met in real life.
If something happens
- Stay calm and thank your child.
- Take screenshots of the chat and the user's profile.
- Use Report Abuse in Roblox.
- Block the user.
- If there's sexual content, requests for images or threats, report to the CICC (1326). See how to report online child abuse.
eGuard sets up screen time, bedtime and app rules on your child's phone and checks that each one is really on. Free for one child.