The United Kingdom is considering a rule that would stop children from using voice chat to speak with strangers in online games like Fortnite and Roblox. The proposal would sit under the Online Safety Act, which already gave the government a way to push age checks on services such as Discord.
According to The Sunday Times, Online Safety Minister Kanishka Narayan said he would look at the restriction as part of a wider social media push aimed at keeping teenagers away from certain platforms. The same report says Narayan raised the idea after a visit to Australia, where he heard about strangers reaching children through gaming platforms.
Metro also noted that England’s Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza supported the idea. In comments shared with Sky News, she pointed to how much time boys spend gaming and said some titles let adults contact children directly.
For now, the plan is still only a possibility. The input text says the Online Safety Act already exists, so the change would likely come as an addition to that law rather than a brand-new bill, and it would only affect people in the United Kingdom. There is no word yet on what penalties platforms could face if they failed to follow it.
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Roblox
Developed by Roblox Corporation
Roblox is a massively multiplayer online platform marketed towards creators and players of all ages. It allows its users to create their own virtual worlds using a variety of objects, in which they or other members may enter and socialize within. Worlds created on Roblox can be scripted using a sandboxed edition of Lua 5.1 to affect events that occur in-game and create different scenarios.
- Genre: Platform, Simulator, Adventure
- Platforms: Meta Quest 2, PlayStation 4, Android, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS, Meta Quest 3, Mac, Xbox One
- Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release: 2006-09-01
- Publisher: Roblox Corporation
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Age Rating:
ACB PG / PEGI 12 / ESRB T / CLASS_IND 10 / GRAC 12+
- IGDB Rating: 70.9/100
