Roblox has rolled out a fresh set of guidelines aimed at shielding younger users from games that blend media feeds with reward systems on its Roblox Kids and Roblox Select catalogs. In a recent announcement posted to the company’s creator hub, the platform explained that the new policy targets any experience that pairs a scrolling or autoplaying media feed with incentives that encourage continuous viewing. According to the official statement, the rule applies specifically to games that combine one or more of the following elements: a media feed that presents short‑form videos, image carousels, or story‑like content; a playback mechanic such as autoplay, infinite scroll, autoscroll, or a loop that forces the content to keep moving without user input; and a reward structure that either explicitly requires or strongly suggests that players must keep watching the feed in order to earn in‑game benefits. The company emphasized that the policy is not a blanket ban on all reward‑based mechanics, but rather a focused effort to eliminate the particular combination that can lead children to spend excessive time consuming endless streams of media for the sake of virtual prizes.
"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. This language signals that developers will have an opportunity to adjust their titles to meet the new standards, but non‑compliant experiences will be pulled from the child‑focused sections of the store.
The timing of the announcement appears to be linked to a recent controversy involving the pet‑collecting simulator Steal an Egg. According to multiple reports, the game was taken offline after it was discovered that it encouraged users to run on a virtual treadmill while a continuous feed of videos played, rewarding players only if they kept the treadmill moving and the content streaming. The mechanic effectively turned the game into a loop of passive video consumption, prompting concerns that it could exploit young users’ desire for rewards to keep them glued to a never‑ending feed. GamesIndustry.biz reached out to Roblox for clarification on whether the new policy was drafted in direct response to the Steal an Egg situation.
While Roblox has not confirmed a causal link, the company did outline the specific criteria that trigger the policy: - The experience must display a media feed to the player, which could be short‑form video clips, image streams, or story‑style updates reminiscent of social media platforms. - It must feature at least one of the following playback mechanisms: autoplay, continuous replay loop, infinite scroll, or autoscroll.
- It must incorporate a reward system that either requires the player to watch the feed continuously or implies that ongoing viewing is necessary to obtain the reward. Roblox stressed that the rule only comes into play when a reward component is paired with an infinite‑scroll or autoplay feature that effectively forces or suggests perpetual consumption of the content. Importantly, the policy does **not** affect traditional rewarded video ads, which remain permissible as long as the user actively initiates the ad and the platform enforces rate limits on how many ads a single user can view within a given timeframe. Developers whose games are flagged for non‑compliance will be given a chance to modify their titles.
Once the necessary changes are made, the games will undergo a re‑review process. Roblox also noted that all other qualifications for inclusion in the Kids and Select catalogs remain unchanged, and the "Engaged Player" metric will not be reset for games that undergo revisions. The policy rollout arrives amid broader scrutiny of Roblox’s approach to child safety.
Last week, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism announced an investigation into the platform, alleging that Roblox appears to prioritize revenue generation and engagement metrics over the well‑being of its younger audience. The committee’s concerns echo the growing public discourse about how gaming platforms monetize attention, especially when that attention is harvested from children. In a parallel move to demonstrate its commitment to safety, Roblox recently open‑sourced three of its artificial‑intelligence safety models through the Robust Open Online Safety Tools Model Community (ROOST).
By sharing these models with the broader research community, Roblox hopes to foster collaborative development of tools that can better detect and mitigate harmful content, reinforcing its public stance on protecting users. Overall, the new "reward‑driven media feed" policy represents a targeted effort to curb a specific type of potentially exploitative game design while still allowing developers to create rewarding experiences for children. By drawing a clear line between acceptable reward mechanics and those that tie rewards to endless media consumption, Roblox aims to balance creative freedom with a heightened responsibility to safeguard its youngest players.
The upcoming developer adjustments and the ongoing Senate investigation will likely shape how effectively the platform can uphold these standards moving forward.