欧博Age Check to Chat Update & Fast Follow Roadm
[February] We will launch two new API endpoints - TextChatService:GetChatGroupsAsync() and VoiceChatService:GetVoiceGroupsAsync() - to help creators group users by age in their Experience. These APIs will work across all active servers in an Experience.
For a given set of in-experience Player instances the APIs return obfuscated communication groups those players belong to. Each call returns an array of arrays of string group IDs, where sharing a group ID indicates that two players can communicate with each other. Users who cannot communicate due to restrictions or age check requirements will not have any group ID returned. Creators will be required to agree to appropriate usage terms before accessing the API. These APIs are useful for matchmaking and teleportation use-cases.
This API looks really interesting, but to be a downer (again) since there still has been no acknowledgement of my article - the “obfuscated” communication groups can and will be de-obsucated if desired, most likely for analytics.
I assume this is why you need to agree to appropriate usage guidelines, but we already do this to use the platform in general. A section of text that says “don’t do this” with a decent chance of no enforcement won’t be effective. Remember how there were certain games showing paid random items (sometimes without showing the odds, which is not allowed globally) to players in regions where that was illegal? The reward? More money! Maybe being part of official Roblox events. Probably an RDC invite as well, and maybe a verified badge. Not even a slap on the wrist for violating the terms we agreed to in order to be on the platform. There is profit to be made with this change for analytics or age-based advertising for those with, obligatory Star Trek reference, the “lobes for business”. The big games will do this, and since this isn’t player-facing (unlike paid random items), they will not get caught, and even if they do, they will make so much money for the platform, that they will not even see a slap on the wrist. They might even sell this data for advertising purposes. Roblox won’t know. Discussions about that will be on Discord.
Normally, I wouldn’t recommend doing this due to potential enforcement, but if what happened with TheOfficialTeddy, who got Roblox Verified, an RDC invite, was going to be part of “The Hatch”, and still took serious drama to get any action, there is no way background de-obfuscating of age groups will get enforcement.
[March] Today Trusted Connections is only available to 13+ users and we’re exploring ways to enable Trusted Connections for younger users with parental oversight,.
…besides that, I’m glad to see this is being looked at, although March is quite a way away. Right now, parents can’t see what their kids ages between 9-12 are saying unless they are physically there (ex: you can’t check in with the kids in-game when they are at their relative’s house). I really hope this actually ships instead of remaining a “promise”.