Roblox said it will treat its digital citizenship education programme in South Korea as a global standard model. It aims to expand an education model that brings together parents, teachers and students, rather than leaving platform safety issues solely to technical controls.

Roblox on April 9 held a 'Digital Citizenship Media Briefing' at The Westin Josun Seoul and disclosed domestic safety education results and future plans. The event was attended by Tammy Bawumiq (타미 바우믹), vice president for civility and partnerships at Roblox, and Park Han-chul (박한철), head of the Korea Association of Teachers for Media Literacy (KATOM).

Age estimation to be mandatory; child-protection tools expanded

Bawumiq stressed that safety standards should be strengthened as the platform grows. Roblox currently has about 144 million daily active users. Key safety measures include chat filters that combine artificial intelligence with human review, a communication structure that does not allow photo and video sharing, and a trust and safety team operating 24 hours a day, year-round.

Earlier this year, Roblox made face image-based age estimation mandatory when using communication features on the platform. Bawumiq explained the move, saying, "As the platform grows, it is Roblox's responsibility to identify the age of all users and verify the appropriateness of communication." Users who complete age estimation can communicate only within the same or similar age group, and users under 9 cannot access chat at all. The function currently applies to communication and will be expanded across the platform, including assessing content appropriateness, it said.

Child-protection features include 15-minute usage time limits, spending caps, viewing a child's friends list, and blocking or muting specific users. Wellbeing features also include disabling online status display and providing screen time insights. The online status hiding function was introduced reflecting input from the teen council.

This week, it began recruiting members for an Asia teen council. Bawumiq said, "I hope many teens in Korea will participate." The parent council has 80 parents participating, and it also operates a separate parent champions programme with 100 parents. Their feedback is being directly reflected in improvements to product policies and community guidelines.

Digital literacy programme launched in Korea to be template for global expansion

Roblox began its digital literacy programme in South Korea 3 years ago. Bawumiq cited Korea as "a leader in education and a country that actively embraces new ideas." She said many parents in conversations at the time said they did not know what Roblox was and did not know how to protect children in a digital environment, which became a direct trigger for developing the programme. She also said the company confirmed parents' views that, in Korea's education environment with heavy entrance-exam pressure, Roblox plays an important role in helping children relieve stress and maintain friendships.

A digital citizenship education course developed in cooperation with KATOM is being run at 12 of 54 regional media centres in Korea, and more than 700 children and parents had completed it as of end-January 2026. Satisfaction was 4.8 out of 5. A five-session certified course opened on teacher training platform Teacherville had been completed by thousands of teachers as of end-2025, and received a full 5 out of 5 in participating teachers' evaluations.

Bawumiq stressed that "the programme's results in Korea are so excellent that we are using it as a template to proceed with global expansion." On future goals, she said, "We will expand the curriculum we developed to all parents, students and teachers in Korea."

KATOM, together with Roblox, developed educational materials for schools' autonomous time into 4 modules, for a total of 40 sessions. It is also reviewing advanced content for middle school students.

In a panel discussion, Bawumiq announced that it will run an experiential pop-up store, 'Run Create Roblox 2026', at The Hyundai Daegu from April 22 to May 10. It is the first large-scale offline event this year following last year's 'Ready, Set, Roblox' pop-up, which drew 170,000 visitors. Reflecting parents' requests for an event more focused on education, it significantly strengthened creation-linked education programmes such as basic coding education, 3D modelling and digital space design. It will also provide opportunities to interact with key Roblox developers.

In a question-and-answer session after the event, a question was raised about controversy over distribution of games that disparage the May 18 Democratization Movement, flagged by a domestic game user group. Bawumiq replied, "This case was handled swiftly," adding, "We have now built a system in which AI filters and trust and safety experts based in Korea operate together." On the issue of ratings classification, she said, "We held a meeting with the Game Rating and Administration Committee this week, and we will work together to develop an appropriate ratings classification strategy."

Asked about controversies over blocking in Russia and Australia and global trust issues, she said, "Trust is something that must be earned, and we are building it through ongoing technology and product innovation such as mandatory age estimation." She added, "Safety is not only Roblox's responsibility, but also the responsibility of governments and parents," and stressed, "That is why we invest a lot of time and money in improving parents' digital literacy."

Asked about the number of game content items registered on the platform each day and the scale of harmful content filtered by AI, Bawumiq said, "We will provide specific figures separately later," and explained that moderation targets not only entire games but also in-game assets and 3D elements such as walls and objects, and that accuracy is improving as technology advances.