Roblox Supports Child Safety Legislation in California – Roblox Blog

People come to Roblox to imagine, create, and share experiences with each other in immersive, user-generated 3D worlds. As a global platform, we believe in building a safe, civil, and diverse community that inspires and fosters creativity and positive relationships around the world. Protecting the safety and privacy of children who come to Roblox to have fun and learn is our top priority. Because of this, we support legislation that we believe will help create a safer internet for children, including the recent California Senate Bill 933 (SB 933), which prohibits individuals from possessing and distributing explicit and/or abusive images of children that have been generated by artificial intelligence (AI). 

As we’ve shared, we believe in the power of AI and generative AI as tools with the power to unlock creativity and productivity and to keep people safe. However, these powerful new technologies require great responsibility and care in how they are used as improper use can lead to harm. According to the Stanford Internet Observatory’s 2023 report, there are thousands of explicit and abusive images of children hidden within popular AI image generators. These images make it easier to create explicit and abusive content. Such images are prohibited on our platform and we use an array of internal tools, as well as external tools like PhotoDNA to prevent that content from being uploaded to the platform or shared.

Such images should be prohibited more widely, which is why Roblox is pleased to stand alongside California law enforcement organizations and child safety advocates to support SB 933. We applaud Senator Aisha Wahab and the members of the Senate Public Safety Committee for their leadership on this legislation and the recognition that laws need to keep pace with the evolving technology landscape.

Since Roblox was founded almost two decades ago, we’ve been committed to putting the safety of young people first, while providing them with an enjoyable online experience. We find this type of content abhorrent, and are proud to collaborate with lawmakers to protect children both on and off of Roblox. SB 933 addresses the pressing issue by expressly prohibiting AI-generated explicit, abusive images of children, clarifying the law to provide more effective safeguards. The solutions set out in SB 933 are straightforward and impactful, and aim to set sensible guardrails for AI-generated images and create a more secure digital environment for children. We hope that others will join us in supporting this important, common-sense legislation.