JAKARTA, Indonesia – In a move that marks one of the strictest youth safety policies the global gaming platform has ever enacted, Roblox confirmed Thursday it will require mandatory facial scanning for all Indonesian users under the age of 16 to verify their age, a change implemented to comply with Indonesia’s sweeping new regulatory framework governing minor access to social media and digital services.
Roblox Vice President and Global Head of Public Policy Nicky Jackson Colaco unveiled the new requirements during a Jakarta press conference, noting that the tailored rules for the Indonesian market outpace most other age-verification policies the platform has rolled out across its global operations. To align with national regulations, the company has restructured its Indonesian user accounts into two age-specific tiers: Roblox Kids, designed for children aged 5 to 12, which removes all in-platform chat functionality entirely; and Roblox Select, for teens aged 13 to 15, which restricts chat interactions exclusively to connections pre-approved by parents or family members.
The rollout will automatically reclassify the platform’s 23 million existing Indonesian accounts that were self-identified as belonging to users under 16, requiring all of these accounts to complete facial scanning-based age verification to retain their current access settings. Any under-16 user that fails to complete the facial scan process will be automatically downgraded to a restricted Roblox Kids account, with all chat functionality permanently disabled until verification is completed.
The age verification process requires users to capture a short video selfie to generate an estimated age assessment. Jackson Colaco emphasized that all biometric data collected during the process is deleted immediately after verification is complete, with no user data stored on Roblox servers long-term. According to Indonesian Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid, Roblox has a total user base of roughly 45 million people in Indonesia, with just over half – around 23 million users – falling under the 16-year age threshold.
Notably, Roblox is the only gaming platform classified as a “high-risk” service by the Indonesian government, requiring it to implement more stringent youth access restrictions than most other major social media platforms operating in the country. Beyond account classification and restricted interaction limits, Roblox will also sort its game library by age appropriateness and enforce mandatory screen time limits to address widespread public concerns over youth gaming addiction. Parents will also be able to set custom daily usage caps aligned with their household rules, Hafid added.
Indonesia’s new national regulation on minor digital access took effect in late March, banning all users under 16 from accessing high-risk digital platforms that may expose young people to harms including gaming addiction, explicit content, online fraud, and cyberbullying. Out of eight major high-risk platforms operating in the country – which include YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and Bigo Live – seven have already committed to rolling out compliant age-based access restrictions. Alongside access limits, Indonesian regulators are pushing all digital platforms to publish regular disclosures of how many under-16 accounts have been restricted or suspended as part of the new policy’s implementation.