Roblox Daily: Platform-Wide Mandatory Age Verification for Chat Features Fully Implemented Globally (Feb 18)

Roblox Daily Briefing: A New Era of Safety and Creation

Feb 18, 2026 - The platform is undergoing one of its most significant transformations to date, with foundational changes to safety, security, and creation rolling out globally. The headline news is the full implementation of mandatory age verification for all chat features. This comprehensive system, which now requires all users to verify their age to access text and voice chat, is designed to protect younger users by strictly limiting communication to those in similar or adjacent age brackets. While early adoption is strong, with over 45% of daily users already verified, the move has ignited community debate over privacy and accessibility, further fueled by controversial reports of players being banned for using avatar items to protest the new policy.

This heightened focus on security is also reflected in a new mandatory requirement for all users with two-step verification to add a backup recovery option—such as a passkey or phone number—to prevent being permanently locked out of their accounts. These proactive measures come as international authorities, including the Australian eSafety Commissioner, intensify their scrutiny of the platform's child safety protocols, signaling a global push for more robust protections.

The Creator Revolution: AI Tools and Avatar Evolution

In a move set to redefine development, Roblox has launched groundbreaking AI-powered 4D creation tools into beta. This revolutionary feature allows creators to generate fully functional, interactive 3D models, like drivable cars, directly from text prompts. This is complemented by new AI tools for generating NPC dialogue and a mandatory, modernized overhaul of the Roblox Studio UI. While the forced UI change has sparked debate over workflow disruption, these updates collectively aim to dramatically lower the barrier to entry and accelerate development cycles for all creators.

This creative push extends directly to avatars. In a definitive shift, all Classic Heads and Faces are being permanently converted to animated Dynamic Heads, with the classic static versions being removed from the marketplace. This, combined with new support for high-resolution 2K textures and upcoming features like a dedicated makeup category and creator-published animation packs, signals a future of unprecedented avatar expression and visual fidelity.

Record-Breaking Engagement and New Ways to Discover

The platform's vibrant ecosystem is stronger than ever, recently shattering all-time records by hosting an astonishing 47.29 million concurrent users. This massive surge was driven by major in-game events, demonstrating the platform's unique ability to facilitate massive, shared social experiences. To help players navigate this sea of content, the new short-form video feature, 'Moments,' has entered beta. It allows players to share gameplay clips and, crucially, lets viewers jump directly into the featured experience with a single click, creating a powerful new discovery engine.

Meanwhile, top experiences continue to deliver compelling updates to retain their massive audiences. ‘Blox Fruits’ has launched a major Valentine's Event with the new Fiend Yeti Mutation, ‘DOORS’ is revitalizing its Battle Mode with a cross-server Quickplay feature, and ‘Adopt Me!’ has overhauled its pet release system, keeping their communities engaged with fresh content and refined gameplay loops.

Ongoing Challenges and The Road Ahead

Despite the positive momentum, the platform faces persistent challenges. A surge in sophisticated exploit scripts for popular games like ‘Blox Fruits’ continues to threaten fair play, highlighting the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between security teams and exploit developers. Separately, a large and growing number of PlayStation 5 users report significant, persistent network latency issues that hamper their gameplay experience. In a move that has frustrated community historians, a massive, unannounced purge of older, unrated games has also occurred, effectively erasing a significant portion of the platform’s legacy content. These issues underscore the complexities of managing a global platform at this scale, balancing innovation with security, performance, and the preservation of its own digital history.