Friends are Back: Expanding Trusted Friends for a New Way to Chat and Play

• Friends are back: Connections and Trusted Connections are now Friends and Trusted Friends

• Connected Parents will automatically become their child’s Trusted Friend so they can chat and play games together.

• With parental consent, users will soon be able to add younger siblings, cousins, and friends as Trusted Friends to chat with them across age groups.

Every day on Roblox, friends and families come together to play games, have fun, and stay connected. Our intent in requiring age checks to chat is to minimize contact between adults and minors who don’t know one another. Our intention is not to keep parents and their children or siblings in different age groups from being able to play and chat together on Roblox. So in the coming weeks, we’re making a few changes to make it easier for families and inner circle friends to safely communicate and collaborate, even if they’re in different age groups. Age-checked users are already unlocking even more fun and community on Roblox with chat, and soon they’ll gain access to Trusted Friends: That’s right, we’re bringing back Friends.

We’re changing Connections back to Friends, going back to the organic language people use in their everyday lives. That means Trusted Connections will become Trusted Friends, a special designation for a user’s inner circle of close friends and family. Today, age-checked users 13 and older can add each other as Trusted Friends with a simple live QR scan. They can also import contacts from their device to quickly identify and add those contacts as Trusted Friends. These methods indicate that these connections are based on existing relationships. Please note that Trusted Friends availability varies by country. 

Soon age-checked users 13 and older will be able to add the people they know, like younger siblings, cousins, or school friends as Trusted Friends (subject to parental approval for users under 13). As Trusted Friends, young adults away at college will be able to play with their younger siblings or friends back home. Parents will be able to get in the game with their child—and finally understand what a brainrot is. And friends who span age groups will be able to collaborate and join games together. 

To access chat or add a Trusted Friend, all users must first complete a simple, quick, and secure age check. Age checks help us understand a user’s age group so we can provide them with an age-appropriate experience. Images and video are used only for age estimation and are deleted after securely processing.

Roblox is designed for users of all ages, which is why we customize chat settings based on user age. Chat is off by default for users younger than 9. From there, parents decide what’s appropriate for their child. By linking their account, parents and caregivers gain access to Parental Controls on their own device, making it easy to customize their child’s experience. 

Linked accounts work like high-tech training wheels. Parents can use whichever tools they like (or none, if our default safety settings feel right for their child). For users younger than 13, parents can set limits on their child’s screen time and spending, block games, review their child’s Friends list, and update their chat settings. Parents decide how much support their child needs as they learn to navigate the digital world. As children grow and show they’re ready for more, parents can begin removing the training wheels, helping their child stay balanced and safe while they play.

In the coming weeks, caregivers with a linked parent account will be automatically upgraded from their child’s Friend to their Trusted Friend. This means they can start chatting and playing games together immediately, with no extra steps required. To benefit from this automatic upgrade, parents must already be age-checked, have their account linked to their child’s, and be their child’s Friend on Roblox. 

For users younger than 9, chat is off by default. Parents will soon have the option to use their Parental Controls to enable chat for Trusted Friends and users in a similar age group. For users 9–12, chat will be on by default, allowing users to chat with Trusted Friends and users in a similar age group. Chat will be filtered to block anything that’s against our Community Standards. Aside from linked parents, users younger than 13 can only be added as Trusted Friends with parental consent. 

For users younger than 13, parents are still the ultimate decision-makers. To add someone as a Trusted Friend, they need to send a request to their parent, who can approve the request via their Parental Controls. If they are asking to add a friend who is also younger than 13, that friend’s parent will also need to approve the request.

When users from different age groups become Trusted Friends, they can collaborate and chat together on Roblox. All communication is proactively monitored by Roblox to maintain the highest standards of safety for the entire community. Users will now see Trusted Friends labeled as Trusted in experience chat and on profile pages, to help them see at a glance which friends they can chat with. 

Roblox’s global standard safety settings remain in place for all chat, including between Trusted Friends. Chat is off by default for users younger than 9. If enabled, chat is filtered to block anything that violates our Community Standards. Users are not allowed to send photos or videos in chat, use profanity, or share personal information like email or home addresses. 

Used in combination, Roblox’s age checks and Trusted Friends make it easy for users to know who else is in a game. This makes games more comfortable and fun for everyone and helps us keep our community vibrant, positive, and respectful.