Roblox announces control measures to comply with Indonesia’s social media curb

(Corrects to change source in seventh bullet point to minister from Roblox executive and adds around to reflect estimated number of Roblox users in Indonesia.)

JAKARTA, April 30 (Reuters) – Videogame platform Roblox has started implementing several measures to comply with Indonesia’s social media curbs for players under 16, the country’s communications minister said on Thursday.

Here are some key information about the measures:

• The first measure is age verification through facial scanning for all under 16 Roblox users in Indonesia, minister Meutya Hafid told reporters

• Age verification is obliged, otherwise, the chat feature will automatically be turned off by the platform, she added.

• The platform will also enable screen time feature for the parents, she said

• “These are amongst the most strict protections that we are offering anywhere in the world. This is happening in Indonesia,” Nicky Jackson Colaco, Roblox’s VP and the Global Head of Public Policy told reporters in the same press conference

• Nicky said Roblox will launch Roblox Kids for ages 5 to 12 with no chat features and Roblox Select for ages 13 to 15 with chat features limited only for family and friends

• Under the policy, Roblox will automatically begin moving the 23 million accounts of under 16 Indonesian users into either Roblox Kids or Roblox select, Nicky said

• There are around 45 million Roblox users in Indonesia where around 23 million of them are under 16, the minister said.

• Roblox has 151.5 million daily active users, the company website showed

• Indonesia last month issued a regulation which requires social media companies with platforms it deems high-risk to deactivate accounts belonging to children under 16

(Reporting by Ananda Teresia and Stefanno Sulaiman, Editing by Louise Heavens)