Facial recognition error locks mom out of Roblox parental controls

Roblox’s facial age-check system is at the center of a new consumer investigation after NBC Los Angeles said a mother was locked out of parental controls when the platform misidentified her 9-year-old son as a teenager.

NBC Los Angeles is teasing the story on its investigations page. The report says the age-estimation error kept the parent from accessing controls she expected to use to manage her child’s account.

Roblox says it requires age checks for chat access and uses either facial age estimation or ID verification. Its support pages say parents can update a linked child’s birthday after age checks, and users can repeat the process or appeal if the estimate appears wrong.

The incident adds to broader criticism of Roblox’s age-verification system. Earlier reporting from WIRED, TechCrunch and ABC Australia documented complaints that the company’s face-based checks can misidentify users and create problems for parents trying to manage accounts.

The company has promoted the system as a safety measure, but the new report underscores the risk of false positives in a tool meant to protect children online. NBC Los Angeles has not yet published the full investigation text on the teaser page reviewed.

If the full report goes live, it may clarify how the family tried to correct the error and whether Roblox intervened.