A Small But Important Change to Roblox Is Part of a Much Bigger Problem

Parents shouldn't be confused over the ratings assigned to the games their kids are playing.

Sep 04, 2025

One of the core problems facing parents trying to juggle the layers of parental controls across various devices and games is simply understanding what the hell they’re looking at. The language describing what does what is often different. Setting the appropriate controls in one place does not mean it will carry over to another.

Even if you’re a Super Parent dedicated to Figuring All This Out, you’re likely to eventually run into a combination of confusion and exhaustion. It’s not a flaw.

Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to see this news from Roblox yesterday:

“Roblox Partners With IARC to Enhance Global Age and Content Ratings”

Going forward, ratings on Roblox “experiences” will make more sense. They will look like something you have seen on the box of a video game before. You will not have to wonder aloud “what does moderate mean?” when reading a Roblox game description.

For folks in the US, it’ll be ESRB ratings. For Europe, it’s PEGI. The list goes on.

Here’s what it currently looks like to see the ratings for a Roblox experience:

Roblox hasn’t released images of what the changes will look like, so I gave it a shot:

I’m probably not leaving my current job for life as an artist, but you get the point.

The ESRB is hardly a perfect institution, but it’s the one we’ve got and its ratings are familiar. In the same way a PG-13 movie from the late 80s is pretty different from a PG-13 movie in 2025, you at least look at the “E” rating and come away with a vague understanding of what’s there. “Ah, okay, that’s probably fine for my kid to check out.”

Which is all this stuff is supposed to be. A snapshot. A guide point. One less thing for a parent to crane their neck at and wonder if they’ve approved something dangerous.

There is no word yet, however, on when you’ll actually see this show up in Roblox.

“We're just announcing today and not ready to share exact timing yet,” said a spokesperson.

Here are all the partnerships for ratings across the world:

Classificação Indicativa (ClassInd) – Brazil
Classification Board (ACB) – Australia
Digital Game Self-regulation Committee (DGSC) – Taiwan
Game Rating and Administration Committee (GRAC) – Republic of Korea
General Authority for Media Regulation (Gmedia) – Saudi Arabia
Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) – North America
Indonesian Game Rating System (IGRS) – Indonesia
Pan European Game Information (PEGI) – Europe
Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) – Germany

Per Roblox: “The system also assigns a legally compliant age rating in Russia and generic IARC ratings in all other territories without a participating rating authority.”

None of this absolves Roblox of the work ahead to make the platform safer, nor am I surprised to see this alongside a slew of other partnerships and safety changes that seem to align with the company receiving an existential lawsuit from the state of Louisiana. But given Roblox likely isn’t going anywhere, it becoming better is good.

You know things are in a weird space when you’re publishing announcements that say “Clarifying Our Policy on Romantic and Sexual Content” with statements like “we’re updating our policy to restrict social hangout experiences depicting private spaces (such as bedrooms and bathrooms) to users who are ID-verified and 17 or older.”

“Wait,” you might ask, “was it possible for kids to hang out in virtual bedrooms?”

[head in hands]

A Small But Important Change to Roblox Is Part of a Much Bigger Problem

Parents shouldn't be confused over the ratings assigned to the games their kids are playing.

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