The Children's Advertising Review Unit, a US non-profit, found Roblox to be in violation of its advertising guidelines, stating that it "did not adequately disclose to children when advertising is present within 'experiences' on Roblox". It advises that, going forward, Roblox helps influencers to make it explicitly clear that players are being exposed to adverts, especially given that much of Roblox's player base is made up of children.
"Roblox did not take adequate measures to ensure that social media influencers with child audiences adequately disclose mat✃erial connections," CARU wrote (thanks, ). "CARU recommended that Roblox monitor their endorsers and influencers to ensure that they are clearly and conspicuously disclosing their material connection👍 to Roblox in a way that children can easily understand."
CARU also stated that Roblox told them it had established a new Advertising Standards for its platform, which will ban advertising to children under the age of 13. To enact this new restriction, it will "require developers to programmatically identify advertising content in experiences". Roblox cla🐓ims it will give developers the tools to code the removal of an ad or to implement a stand-in, non-advertising replacement. This change goes live on June 15, 2023.
CARU clarifies that Roblox's new policy is not a result of its recommendation or inquiry, but that when the policy goes into effect, "the advertising practices outlined above... will no longer be at issue". However, "CARU will continue to monitor the platform to ensure compliance with CARU Advertising Guidelines once the new policy is implemented."
CARU states that Roblox should also implement a moderation process to enforce the advertising policy it has proposed.ꦰ This would ensure that adverts are not shown to under-13-year-olds, but also help to uphold community standards.
It also stated that Roblox's new policy does not apply to the Roblox Video Stars Program, meaning that adverts on social media content such as YouTube and Twitch will not be held to this new system. This is in spite of the fact that "CARU found that social media influencers in Roblox’s Influencer Program who had large child audiences did not clearly and conspicuously disclose their material connection to Roblox in their videos in a way children can understand, and that influencers in the Video Stars Program who promoted their unique Star Code did not clearly and conspicuously disclose, in a way children can understand, that they will receive a commission when Robux (Roblox currency) are purchased."
CARU ended its inquiry stating that it also raised pr﷽ivacy concerns with Roblox on top of its concerns addressed about advertising. It is currently "working directly with COPPA Safe Harbor to address these issues accordingly."