The popular online game platform Roblox has announced that it will soon start allowing developers to create games for people aged 17 and older to reflect the growing influx of young adults to the platform.

Roblox announced these changes in a statement on its developers' forum. It stated, "17 to 24 year-olds are the fastest-growing group on Roblox, and in 2022, people over 17 made up 38% of our daily active users."

It continued, "We've heard your feedback on wanting to be able to build experiences that feature more mature themes and storylines that appeal to older users. We'll be highlighting these new experiences in our recommendations to people over 17. As a creator, you will have new opportunities for expression, engagement, and potential earnings."

Before this change, which will roll out over the next few weeks, Roblox offered content for children under three categories: All Ages, 9+, and 13+. Because of this, its content was toned down, and developers had strict rules on what to do and what not to do.

Roblox has relaxed those rules, though, to attract people that want more mature content.

For the new age category, the company specified that "Content is only suitable for ages 17 and up. May contain intense violence, heavy realistic blood, moderate crude humor, romantic themes, unplayable gambling content and/or the presence of alcohol."

To ensure that children younger than 17 years cannot participate in these games, whether as creators or as players, Roblox plans to ask for a selfie and a photo of their government-issued ID as verification.

Although the company has relaxed its rules on what you can feature in video games, it still emphasizes that games should not depict drugs, such as tobacco and heroin. It also maintains that games developed and published on the platform should be devoid of sexual content or nudity.

We think the decision to expand the platform's accessibility is a welcome development for the company and its users. On the one hand, Roblox's audience will grow even faster as more and more people that are 17 or older will flock there, knowing there is something for them.

This will drive more revenue for the company and, more importantly, provide more job opportunities for developers who ply their trade on the platform. At the same time, the new  development guidelines mean the company can still control how people that are 17 and older experience the platform.

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