Russia on Wednesday lifted restrictions on popular children’s gaming platform Roblox, saying the company “has fully complied with Russian legal requirements aimed at ensuring user safety.”
“The company has implemented a range of additional child-protection measures,” the Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Ministry said in a statement.
“Roblox pledged to continue efforts to combat the spread of undesirable content on the platform,” the ministry said.
State media regulator Roskomnadzor blocked access to U.S.-owned Roblox last year on claims that it distributes extremist materials and promotes “LGBT propaganda.”
Roskomnadzor said that children on Roblox were being “subjected to sexual harassment, tricked into intimate photos and coerced into committing depraved acts and violence.”
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said soon after that the ban triggered a flood of complaints sent by children to the authorities.
At the time, pro-Kremlin censorship advocate Yekaterina Mizulina said she had received 63,000 letters from children aged eight to 16, half of whom expressed the desire to leave Russia after the Roblox ban.
The Roblox Corporation, the gaming platform’s California-based owner, says it moderates all content through human review and artificial intelligence tools, including to remove “exploitative content.”
Around 100 million people worldwide use Roblox daily, with children under 13 accounting for around 40% of its 2024 users, according to the company.
Roblox was the most downloaded mobile game in Russia in 2023.
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