Newsletters
Roblox is moving toward a return to Türkiye, its top public policy executive said, as the company announced a broad restructuring of how younger users access its platform. The announcement, framed explicitly around ongoing dialogue with Turkish authorities, marks the clearest signal yet that the company intends to lift a ban that has kept the platform dark in the country since August 2024.
Nicky Jackson Colaco, Roblox's head of global public policy, said talks with Turkish Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Omer Fatih Sayan and the country's Information Technologies and Communications Authority, the BTK, had been "very productive." Colaco said the safety measures unveiled this week grew directly from those conversations, adding that the company expects to return to Turkish players and developers "as soon as possible and in the safest way possible."
Türkiye blocked Roblox on August 7, 2024, citing content deemed capable of facilitating the exploitation of children. The move cut off access for millions of users in one of the platform's significant emerging markets, and placed the company under pressure to demonstrate credible, structural changes to how it protects younger players, not just policy commitments.
The package announced this week represents Roblox's most substantive response to that pressure to date.
Central to the overhaul is a two-tier account structure built around age. Children between five and eight will be automatically assigned to "Roblox Kids" accounts, which limit access to the lowest content classifications and disable all communication features. Users aged nine to fifteen will be placed in "Roblox Select" accounts, which allow a somewhat broader content range but retain filters and active moderation controls. Players who turn 16 graduate to standard accounts.
The framework moves away from a single blanket policy for all younger users, instead creating meaningfully distinct environments calibrated to different developmental stages.
The new account structure runs alongside a facial recognition-based age verification system Roblox began deploying earlier this year. The company says more than half of its global user base has already completed the process.
Games on the platform will be subject to ongoing re-evaluation based on developer verification, content classification, and observed user behavior, with additional filtering applied automatically for users under 16. Roblox has also said it plans to adopt the IARC content rating framework, bringing it into closer alignment with established international standards including PEGI and ESRB.
For families, the update adds tools to approve individual games, manage chat permissions, block specific content, and monitor who children interact with and where they spend time on the platform.
Roblox's direction of travel is clear. Its public statements point toward return, its safety architecture has been materially upgraded, and its senior leadership is publicly acknowledging dialogue with the very officials who oversee the ban. What remains unresolved is whether Ankara will judge these measures sufficient, and when a formal decision might come. The company has offered intent and momentum. The timeline, for now, belongs to Turkish regulators.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
