Roblox, a popular online gaming platform, is adding a 17-and-older age category to expand its user base. This action demonstrates as it wants to broaden its appeal and shed its image as a children's game platform.

The newly added mature age category allows creators to create experiences with more explicit material and adult topics. Roblox's Chief Product Officer Manuel Bronstein said this expansion would contain extensive violence and alcohol consumption, according to The Verge.

Roblox has established a strict age verification method to ensure that individuals under the legal age limit cannot access the 17+ experiences. 

According to statistics, 38% of Roblox's daily users were 17 and older in the previous year, with the 17-24 age range emerging as the platform's fastest-growing user cohort. Roblox designers are now mostly above 18, demonstrating a propensity to create more complex and adult settings.

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The enormous potential that results from serving this group, according to Manuel Bronstein, is emphasized. He thinks it's a chance for developers to reach a new audience and monetize more, as people over 17 have more control over their finances.

The Limitations of Roblox Mature Experience

The new age category will have constraints, however. The rules of Roblox expressly forbid severe violence or significant bodily and psychological abuse, even though more graphic violence will be permitted. Likewise, romance themes are OK, but nudity and overtly sexual material are not, according to its Developer Forum post.

With its larger goal of simulating the real world, where individuals of all ages may cohabit, socialize, and partake in age-appropriate events, Roblox is trying to expand its appeal. After going public in 2021, the business wants to deliver targeted advertising to verified customers over 17. This expansion will give marketers more influence over their audience.

Eligible users will soon have access to Roblox's new 17+ age group, allowing them to explore and create more adult material. Users of the site must submit a selfie and a picture of their government-issued ID to complete the age verification procedure, which assures compliance and allows parents to personalize their children's access to certain activities via Roblox's parental controls.

Meanwhile, the stock of Roblox has been doing well; shares have increased by around 44% year so far, outpacing the Nasdaq's growth rate of about 31% for the same period, per CNBC.

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