Level Up with ESRB: Talkin’ Ratings – Roblox and Diverse Content

The giggles coming down the stairs were louder than usual, so I decided to investigate. Opening the door to our bedroom, I found my two daughters playing Dress to Impress on their laptops and cackling.  This was not unusual.  What was novel, though, was that they had looped their mother into the game.

What was so funny?

The Incident

First, some background for the uninitiated. In Dress to Impress, players are given a theme for an outfit and an enormous closet with a wide variety of clothes to choose from.  As the name implies… players must then dress their avatar to impress the other players. When time runs out after choosing a look, players compete against each other for the best outfit.  This is where the laughter comes in. This part wasn’t going so well for my wife.

The chat was generally supportive to most of the players, with comments raging from “fire!” to “slayyyyy.” But poor Mom’s outfit was met with comments like “yikes” and “oh.”  This is around when I arrived. My daughters simply could not contain their glee.  In fairness, the outfit was an abomination.

Editors Note: The outfit in question. AKA “SpongeBob and Patrick” in the chat.

While the outcome wasn’t entirely great for my wife, it was an impromptu moment that brought the whole Garrity family together despite the dozens of plans with friends, after-school commitments, weekend errands to run, and (of course) video games to rate swirling around us. This event stuck out to me though, reaffirming that it’s possible for video games to bring us together for these fun moments; even as my kids continue to grow. But it also occurred to me that, to nurture these moments, it’s important for parents to have a good idea of how to manage their kids’ video game experiences (on Roblox and beyond) to make sure they have fun and appropriate play.

Appropriate Play

Dress to Impress is just one of thousands of experiences on Roblox.  As a platform, the content available via Roblox experiences can range widely. Yes, there are many, many games with content akin to Dress to Impress, but there are also experiences designed for an older or more mature audience. So, how does ESRB approach rating a platform like Roblox with such varied content? Let’s start with the rating assignment and Content Descriptor.

Roblox is rated “Teen” with a Content Descriptor for “Diverse Content: Discretion Advised.”  The Diverse Content notice was designed to signal that a platform includes a wide range of content with varying levels of maturity. That way, parents know that they may need to go one step deeper to manage what their kids have access to when playing on a platform like Roblox.

Communication between players, such as those unimpressed fellow contestants in Dress to Impress, is a big part of Roblox and why so many kids find it compelling.  It’s why ESRB also assigned an Interactive Element for “Users Interact,” which serves as a flag for parents that those features exist and that you may want to have a chat before they start playing about with whom they can communicate online.

My daughters recently looped me into another Roblox experience they were playing – 99 Nights in the Forest.  As an avid gamer, I think they hoped I would bring something to the team to help ensure our survival.  Alas, this was not to be.  They quickly grew frustrated with my repeated deaths and complete lack of value to the overall objective. I died so frequently that they debated purchasing a revive to bring me back into the game.  This revive would cost Robux, which can be purchased with real world money.

To alert parents about the ability to spend real world money within Roblox, ESRB has assigned an Interactive Element for “In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items).”  While buying a revive wouldn’t be considered a random item, some experiences on the platform do offer items that the player might not know exactly what they are receiving, like a loot box or some other bundle of different random items.

Parental Controls on Roblox

Fortunately, like other game devices and platforms, Roblox has a suite of parental controls to help you manage your child’s access to a whole host of interactive features. Roblox’s integrated parental controls allow you to block or limit with whom your kids can chat, as well as control the amount of money and time spent on the platform.

If I can offer one more piece of advice, it’s to make sure your kids are entering their actual, birthdate when signing up for Roblox (or for any platform/service for that matter). For Roblox specifically, doing so not only ensures that your kids’ data will be treated appropriately (i.e., adhering to pertinent laws and regulations governing the collection and sharing of personal information belonging to children), but it also activates a number of automatic guardrails around content, communication with others, screen time, and more.

In fact, all accounts belonging to children who are under the age of 13 automatically activate content filtering and disable online chat with others (unless you provide your consent, as a parent!). On top of these automatic features there are a number of controls that you can manage yourself, including limiting or blocking certain experiences, managing screen time limits, further restricting communications, blocking in-game purchases and more! Find out more here.

And one more thing, make sure you discuss with your kids that they should never move their chat with a stranger to another platform without your permission. It makes it impossible for Roblox to monitor for safety, and more challenging for you as the parent to know with whom your kids are speaking.

ESRB has step-by-step parental controls guides for many consoles and platforms at ParentalTools.org, and you can learn more about Roblox’s parental controls in our dedicated blog.

Play Together and Stay Involved!

Even with all these tools, playing together is the best way to keep an eye on what your kids are doing, gain an understanding of what they get out of playing games, as well as just spending quality time together.  It’s been one of the true pleasures of fatherhood to play video games with my girls, and I highly recommend it to all you parents out there…moms too!

Bill is the senior vice president, ratings at ESRB, and is responsible for the issuance of all ratings in a timely, accurate, and consistent manner.  In addition, Bill leads the Rating Authority Working Group of the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC).