Roblox has rolled out a fresh set of guidelines aimed at shielding younger users from games that incorporate what the company calls "reward‑driven media feeds" within the Roblox Kids and Roblox Select collections. The move is part of a broader effort to tighten oversight of game mechanics that could encourage children to spend excessive time scrolling through video or image feeds in pursuit of in‑game benefits. In a detailed announcement posted on the Roblox Creator Hub, the platform explained that the new policy targets any experience that blends a media feed—such as short‑form videos, picture streams, or story‑style posts—with autoplay, infinite‑scroll, or auto‑scroll functionality, and then ties those elements to a reward system.
In other words, if a game shows a continuous feed of content and then offers virtual items, currency, or progression boosts only when the player keeps watching, it will fall under the new restrictions. "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 statement read.
The company added that developers whose titles are flagged will be given the opportunity to modify the offending mechanics and submit the revised version for re‑evaluation. Successful adjustments will allow the game to remain in the curated Kids and Select sections, preserving its eligibility for the Engaged Player criteria and other qualifications that had already been earned. The policy update appears to be a direct response to recent controversy surrounding the pet‑collecting simulator Steal an Egg. According to multiple sources, Steal an Egg was taken offline after it was discovered that the game encouraged users to run on a virtual treadmill while a never‑ending stream of content played in the background.
Players could earn in‑game rewards only by maintaining continuous viewership, a design that raised concerns about addictive loops and the potential for excessive screen time among children. GamesIndustry.biz reached out to Roblox for comment, asking whether the new rule was drafted specifically because of the Steal an Egg incident.
While Roblox did not confirm a direct causal link, it clarified the criteria that trigger the policy: - The experience must present a media feed to the player, which can include short video clips, image carousels, or story‑like social media posts. - The feed must incorporate at least one of the following technical features: autoplay, a continuous replay loop, infinite scroll, or automatic scrolling. - The game must also contain a reward mechanism that either explicitly requires or strongly implies that the player must keep watching the feed to obtain the reward.
Roblox emphasized that the rule does not extend to traditional rewarded video advertisements. Those ads remain permissible as long as the user actively initiates the viewing and the platform enforces rate limits on how many ads a single user can watch within a given timeframe. The distinction is important because rewarded ads have long been a standard monetisation tool for developers, whereas the newly restricted mechanics blend entertainment with incentives in a way that could subtly coerce younger players into prolonged consumption. Developers whose games are found to be non‑compliant will receive a notice and a chance to redesign the problematic elements.
After the changes are made, the titles will undergo a second review. Roblox assured that all other eligibility requirements for inclusion in the Kids and Select catalogs will stay intact, and that the Engaged Player metric—a key performance indicator for many creators—will not be reset as a result of the policy enforcement.
The timing of the announcement coincides with heightened scrutiny of Roblox from regulators. Last week, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism launched an investigation into the platform, alleging that Roblox appears to place revenue generation and user engagement metrics ahead of child safety considerations.
The Senate inquiry has put additional pressure on Roblox to demonstrate concrete steps toward protecting its under‑18 audience. In a separate but related development, Roblox has taken strides to improve its overall safety infrastructure by open‑sourcing 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 improvements in detecting harmful content, mitigating abusive behaviour, and ensuring a safer environment for all users, especially children. Overall, the new "reward‑driven media feed" policy reflects Roblox's attempt to balance creative freedom for developers with the responsibility of safeguarding young players from potentially exploitative game designs. As the platform continues to evolve, both creators and regulators will be watching closely to see how effectively these guidelines are enforced and whether they lead to a measurable reduction in risky gameplay patterns.