What do you care about more? Profit or People?
Yes, this is another blog post about Roblox.
I've been watching many videos about Roblox and their terrible decisions they've made this past month (crazy, I know) as well as the new chatting system.
First, I want to mention that Roblox has been a part of my life for nearly a decade (in June* it officially would be). However, I'm not going to sit idly as I watch a platform that has made up half of my life shatter in front of me.
I love Roblox as a website. It's the reason I found out about the concept of rhythm games, fashion, creativity, and community. Despite everything positive, I know when I need to step away from the platform. These past few months have been terrible for Roblox but more importantly, terrible for people who want to protect the young people in the now wasteland Roblox has ultimately become.
I'm a firm believer that everything that led up to this point (technically Summmer 2025) is all Roblox's fault. Their moderation has always been subpar in addition to the idea that AI moderation would ever be better than a human moderator.
From the shit with OfficialTeddy to other games like it slipping through the cracks to the banning of Schlep to literal states and countries being against Roblox. No matter what people's political beliefs are, I'm so happy there's being so much light shed on just how bad Roblox has been with their moderation.
Then there came the new chatting update: you can only chat with people around your age range. Sounds great, right? It could have been but the way they have gone about it is anything but. You have to verify your face in order to be placed into said groups. If the face verification is wrong, you'd have to use an ID. Oh, how could I forget! The face verification system is backed by Persona AI. I recommend searching just "Persona AI" and add nothing else. What results do you get? A lawsuit? For mishandling personal data? I hope you're starting to see how flawed it all is (besides the fact that an AI is trying to guess your age).
For me personally, if I were to do this verification (which I never plan to), I'd likely be categorized far younger than I actually am. For context, I'm 17 as I'm writing this. However, I'd say I have a younger looking face. I believe I'd likely get marked as something younger than I actually am.
In addition to everything above, a little birdie told me that Roblox might do periodic checks on you. You know, to make sure you're the age that the AI marked to be. But, Roblox, I thought the camera was only used once! Another lie.
And you might be thinking: couldn't this all just get bypassed? You'd be correct. There have already been people bypassing this flawwed system: selling accounts that can chat with specific age ranges, people drawing beards on themself to get by the system (I'm deadass), & morse code via player movement (which is lowkey creative I can't lie).
(02/20/26) I could go on and on but seeing a game I used to play heavily (it and MSP being my main two) fall this far from grace is saddening at best.
[Yeah I totally didn't forget to type the rest of my thoughts but I think you'd understand regardless.]