Roblox Parental Controls: The Complete Guide for Parents
Roblox lets parents link an account to their child's profile to manage game access, chat permissions, screen time and spending limits. Here's exactly how to set up and use every current parental control, step by step, straight from Roblox's own Help Center.
Roblox lets parents link their own account to a child's account and then manage almost everything about how that child experiences the platform — which games they can open, who can message them, how long they can play each day, and how much they can spend. Here is exactly how the current system works, step by step, straight from Roblox's own Help Center and Safety Center.
1. Two Ways to Manage a Child's Account
Roblox offers two separate paths for parents, and which one applies depends on whether you want your own Roblox account involved.
A Linked Parent Account
This is the full-featured option. You create or use your own Roblox account, verify that you are 18 or older (via facial age estimation, a government-issued ID, or a credit card), enter your birthday, and link your account to your child's. Once linked, you can manage settings and see activity insights — including screen time and who your child is connecting with — from the Roblox website or app on your own device, and you'll receive emails about certain activity such as spending.
Parent Mode
If you don't want to create your own linked account, your child can select “Ask in Person” and hand you their device. You verify that you're an adult, review the request, and can set a 6-digit PIN so future approvals go faster. Parent Mode is only available when the child doesn't already have a linked parent account, and it can't send you real-time alerts like spending notifications — for that, you need a full linked account. Roblox notes this option is rolling out gradually and may not be available to everyone yet.
Unlinking your account later removes your ability to approve actions, change privacy settings, or set screen time and spending limits for that child, so treat linking as an ongoing commitment rather than a one-time setup.
2. Controlling Which Games Your Child Can Play
Once linked, go to Settings > Parental Controls, select your child's account, and open the content restrictions section. From there you can raise or lower the content maturity level your child is allowed to access. Experiences above that level simply won't be playable — though Roblox notes they may still turn up in search results or ads, so a locked-out game can still be visible to your child, just not joinable. The platform's most mature-rated experiences are restricted to age-verified users who are 18 or older, regardless of any parental setting.
Blocking and Allowing Individual Experiences
Maturity levels work game-by-game, but you can also override them directly. Blocking a specific experience works no matter what maturity level it carries, and a blocked game stays blocked even if it would otherwise fit your settings — though, again, it can still appear in search listings. You can also approve an experience that wouldn't normally be available to your child, and revoke that approval at any time. Children under 13 cannot undo a block their parent set themselves; they can only ask the linked parent to lift it. Accounts set to the more restrictive Roblox Kids or Roblox Select modes are limited to a curated list of age-appropriate experiences regardless of other settings.
3. Chat, Friends and Direct Messages
Filtered chat — which screens language before it's sent — is the default for all eligible communication on Roblox. On top of that baseline, an account owner (or a linked parent) can limit or turn off who is allowed to chat with the child, who can send them messages, who can follow them into an experience, and who can invite them to a private server.
Roblox also lets a linked parent block specific people from a child's friends list, preventing that person from direct-messaging the child, and report them for a policy violation directly from the parental controls panel. Accounts for users under 13 start with more restrictive communication defaults automatically, unless a parent chooses to loosen them. In most regions, parents can manage the full range of these settings until their child turns 12; certain controls, including which experiences a child can access and whether they can use Direct Chat, remain manageable until age 15. Settings update automatically as a child ages up if neither the parent nor the child has changed them.
4. Setting a Daily Screen Time Limit
To cap how long your child can use Roblox each day: open Settings (the gear icon on desktop, or More > Settings on mobile), go to Parental Controls, select the right child if you have more than one linked, scroll to the Screen time section, and click Manage next to the seven-day average chart. From there, open Screen time limit and choose a duration from the Daily limit dropdown.
Once a child hits that limit, they'll see an on-screen message and won't be able to use Roblox again until the next day. The same Screen Time panel has a Top experiences view listing the 20 games your child spent the most time in over the past week, each with its content maturity rating and total play time — though the view only counts time spent inside specific experiences, while the seven-day chart counts all time on the platform, and a game that's since been removed from Roblox won't show up in the list. Children aged 13 and older who don't have a linked parent account can set their own daily limit the same way, under Settings > Privacy & content restrictions > Screen time.
5. Monthly Spending Limits and Robux Oversight
With a linked account, go to Settings > Parental Controls > Settings you manage > Spending restrictions > Monthly spending limit, enter the cap you want, and click Update. A few limitations are worth knowing before you rely on this:
- Monthly spending limits don't apply to gift card redemptions.
- They may not apply on certain console platforms — Roblox specifically notes that a limit set on Roblox will not affect spending made through Xbox, so console purchases need to be capped using that device's own parental controls instead.
- The limit resets automatically at the end of each calendar month and does not roll over, whether or not it was reached.
Parents can also choose how they're notified about spending — either an alert for every transaction, or only when monthly spending gets unusually high — and a linked account lets you view your child's Robux balance and add Robux directly.
6. Privacy Settings and Account Deactivation
Beyond chat and spending, the Parental Controls panel also covers broader privacy settings for a linked child's account. If it's ever necessary, a parent can deactivate a child's account entirely through Settings > Privacy & content maturity on that child's account. Roblox is explicit that it doesn't encourage sharing login credentials to manage these settings — instead, multiple parents or caregivers can each link their own separate account to the same child, and each gets their own access to manage and monitor.
7. Keeping Controls Current as Your Child Grows
Because defaults and permissions shift automatically at certain ages, it's worth checking in on the Parental Controls panel every so often rather than setting it once and forgetting about it. The Top Experiences view is a quick way to see whether your child has moved on to new games that might need a maturity check, and the spending notification settings mean you don't have to log in constantly to stay aware of purchases. If your family situation changes and you need to unlink accounts, remember that doing so immediately removes your ability to manage any of the settings above for that child.
Quick Tips Recap
- Link a parent account (verified 18+) to your child's account for the full control set, or use Parent Mode for occasional in-person approvals without creating one.
- Content maturity levels and individual game blocks work independently — use both for the tightest control over what's playable.
- Screen time limits lock the app for the rest of the day once hit; Top Experiences shows where play time actually went.
- Monthly spending limits don't cover gift cards or some console purchases — set Xbox limits separately on the console itself.
- Settings loosen automatically as your child ages up, so revisit them periodically rather than assuming they stay fixed.
For players who also want to know how Roblox verifies who's actually on the platform, our breakdown of Roblox's facial age estimation system covers the identity side of this same safety push, and creators balancing a kid's account against their own can check what changed with Roblox's newest creator-side building tools. Families managing a Roblox Wallet alongside a linked child account may also want to read up on everything Roblox announced about its new Wallet and standalone apps. For more guides across other platforms and games, browse our full walkthroughs and guides archive.