Roblox has rolled out a fresh policy aimed at shielding younger users from games that incorporate what the company calls "reward‑driven media feeds" on its Roblox Kids and Roblox Select storefronts. The move is designed to block any gameplay that mixes scrolling or autoplaying media with incentives that push children to keep watching content for in‑game benefits. In a detailed announcement posted to its Creator Hub, Roblox explained that the new guideline targets any experience that blends a media feed—such as short‑form videos, image carousels, or story‑style updates—with mechanics like autoplay, infinite scroll, continuous replay loops, or automatic scrolling, and then ties those mechanics to a reward system.
In other words, if a game shows a feed of videos or pictures and then tells the player they will earn coins, items, or other perks only by continuing to watch that feed, it falls under the ban. "We are actively reviewing games for compliance with the new policy. Games that do not follow this policy will be removed from Kids and Select unless the game mechanic is redesigned," the Roblox team wrote. The statement makes clear that developers will have a window to modify their titles, but any game that continues to use the prohibited combination after a review will be taken down from the child‑focused sections of the platform.
The policy appears to be a direct reaction to the recent controversy surrounding the pet‑collecting simulator Steal an Egg. According to multiple sources, Steal an Egg was pulled from Roblox Kids after it introduced a feature that placed the player's avatar on a virtual treadmill. While the avatar ran, a continuous stream of content played, and the longer the player let the feed run, the more in‑game currency they earned.
Critics argued that this mechanic effectively forced children to sit passively and consume endless media in order to progress, raising concerns about both attention‑span manipulation and the monetisation of that attention. GamesIndustry.biz reached out to Roblox for comment, asking whether the new rule was drafted specifically as a response to the Steal an Egg situation. Roblox did not confirm a direct causal link, but the timing suggests the company is reacting to the public outcry and the broader scrutiny it is facing from regulators and child‑safety advocates. Roblox laid out three concrete criteria that determine whether a game falls under the new restriction: 1.
The experience displays a media feed to the player—this could be short videos, an image carousel, or a social‑media‑style story feed. 2. The feed incorporates at least one of the following behaviours: autoplay, a continuous replay loop, infinite scroll, or automatic scrolling. 3.
The game includes a reward system that either requires or strongly suggests that the player must keep watching the feed in order to obtain the reward. The company stressed that the rule only triggers when the reward component is paired with an infinite‑scroll or autoplay feature that obliges—or appears to obligate—the user to keep consuming the content.
Stand‑alone reward videos, such as traditional rewarded ad placements, are exempt because they must be actively initiated by the player and are subject to strict rate limits that prevent excessive viewing. Developers whose games are flagged will be given the opportunity to adjust their titles to meet the policy’s requirements.
Once changes are made, Roblox will conduct a re‑review. Importantly, Roblox clarified that all other qualifications for inclusion in the Kids and Select catalogs remain unchanged, and any progress a game has made toward meeting the Engaged Player criteria will not be reset. The policy rollout comes amid heightened scrutiny from lawmakers. Last week, the U.S.
Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism announced an investigation into Roblox, accusing the platform of prioritising revenue and engagement metrics over the safety of its youngest users. The subcommittee’s concerns echo those raised by parents, educators, and child‑advocacy groups who argue that the platform’s monetisation strategies—particularly those that encourage prolonged screen time—could be detrimental to children’s development. In a parallel effort to demonstrate its commitment to safety, Roblox also announced that it has open‑sourced three of its AI safety models through the Robust Open Online Safety Tools Model Community (ROOST).
By sharing these tools with the broader research community, Roblox hopes to foster collaborative development of technologies that can better detect and mitigate harmful content, including the kinds of manipulative reward mechanisms the new policy seeks to eliminate. Overall, the introduction of the reward‑driven media feed restriction signals Roblox’s attempt to balance the creative freedom of its developer community with the growing demand for stronger child‑protection measures. While some developers may view the rule as an additional hurdle, the company’s stance reflects an industry‑wide shift toward more responsible design practices, especially on platforms where children constitute a large portion of the audience. As the investigation by the Senate subcommittee proceeds and as parental concerns continue to mount, Roblox’s actions in the coming months will likely serve as a bellwether for how major gaming ecosystems address the intersection of engagement, monetisation, and child safety.