Roblox will suspend voice and text chats in Saudi Arabia, following a request by the government to make the game safer for children.
The General Commission for Audiovisual Media in Saudi Arabia called on Roblox to effectively ban online communications via the game in the kingdom.
Roblox said this week it had complied with the Saudi authority's requests and rolled out restrictions on voice and text chat - important elements in the game - following growing criticism over the platform's alleged lack of safeguards for child users.
"Following discussions with several government entities, including the General Commission for Audiovisual Media in Saudi Arabia, we are committed to enhancing our communication and content moderation capabilities in Arabic to ensure a safer experience for players," Roblox said in a statement.
Roblox is an online platform where players interact, create games, and trade items, and has often been praised for its educational potential.
But it has also been used by activists to highlight political issues , including the war on Gaza, while critics say the company has failed to protect children from bullying, predatory behaviour, and other harmful content.
In response, Roblox said it would deploy AI tools and Arabic-language moderators to monitor content in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where authorities have also imposed restrictions over fears children could be exploited.
“[Roblox is] temporarily disabling some communication features, such as in-game chat, as part of precautionary measures to protect younger age groups", the UAE's Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority said on Thursday.
Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar have blocked or plan to ban the game in their countries, after concerns from parents.
The makers this week acknowledged issues regarding children being able to communicate with adults via the game, and pledged to implement changes that will make it a safer environment for its young users.
"We're making two fundamental changes," said Matt Kaufman, the chief safety officer at Roblox.
"By the end of the year, we will require all users who have access to communication on Roblox to go through an age check process or age estimation process. What that process does is it gives us more information about how old the user actually is without relying on their self-reported age at sign up.
"That’s important, both for young users, so that we know whether they’re really at the right age to be able to use communication features. And it also helps address bad actors who may try to impersonate younger users.
"The second thing we’re doing is we’re implementing limits so that younger users cannot talk to adults who they do not know in real life."