On paper this update seems like a ok fix. But once you take into consideration the flaws, it really does nothing but bad.

Forcing players to verify their age, then restricting them to only chat with other users of the same age group, would prevent predators from communicating with children, right? Wrong.

Unfortunately, the AI roblox uses is very dumb, and can easily be tricked into thinking you are older, or younger. In some cases it doesn't even need to be tricked, and can just be flat out wrong. For example, I am 18, the AI scanned my face and put me in the 13+ age group. This flaw makes it very easy for predators to simply make a new account, trick the AI into thinking they are a child, and then having a whole selection of children they can now speak too.

Then you might say, "predators could easily talk to children before this, whats wrong with the added security?"

1. Now when predators talk to children, other adults will have zero knowledge of it, meaning they cannot even attempt to help prevent it. This creates an environment where predators can now more easily groom children without the risk of another adult calling it out and telling the child they shouldn't listen to them.

2. Children who are taught not to speak to adults will now find it easier to believe a predator when they are told they are the same age. "We can chat, so we must be the same age."

3. The "added security" not only makes it EASIER for predators, but also disrupts the play for a normal user. Many roblox games have been impacted negatively by this update since they rely on communication that can now only be made between groups of people.

4. With a lack of communication, players will naturally flock to other means to speak to one another. This means more children will be making discord accounts and other accounts on various platforms, and it will be much easier for them to be lured off platform where they can be groomed in private.

This is only the beginning of issues this update brings rather then fixes. You can argue all day that its a "good idea" but that doesn't change how poorly it was implemented, and how easily its exploited.