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  "path": "/news/1994034/australias-online-watchdog-targets-roblox-and-minecraft-over-extreme-content",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-22T05:59:13.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.dawn.com",
  "tags": [
    "Tech",
    "enacting",
    "found"
  ],
  "textContent": "Australia’s internet watchdog raised fears on Wednesday that popular online gaming platforms such as Roblox and Minecraft were being used by “predatory adults” to target children.\n\nThe nation’s eSafety Commission has sent legal notices to a host of the world’s most popular gaming platforms, demanding they explain how they are working to stamp out dangerous content.\n\nAustralia is at the forefront of global efforts to protect children from online harm, enacting laws last year that ban teenagers under 16 from social media.\n\neSafety boss Julie Inman Grant said research had shown the vast majority of Australian children played some sort of online game.\n\n“Predatory adults know this and target children through grooming or embedding terrorist and violent extremist narrative in gameplay,” she said.\n\nOnline gaming platforms Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite and Steam will be required to show how they are identifying and eliminating online harms, Inman Grant said.\n\n“We’ve seen numerous media reports about grooming taking place on all four of these platforms, as well as terrorist and violent extremist-themed gameplay.”\n\nInman Grant said examples included gaming platforms recreating mass shootings and World War II concentration camps.\n\nRoblox said it had policies in place that strictly prohibited extreme content.\n\n“We welcome engagement with eSafety on this important topic,” the platform told _AFP_ in a statement.\n\n“We encourage anyone who sees anything concerning on Roblox to report it to us.”\n\nAustralia in December banned under-16s from a raft of the world’s most popular social media sites, citing the need to protect young minds from “predatory algorithms” filled with sex and violence.\n\nThree months since the landmark laws came into effect, Australia’s online safety watchdog found a “substantial proportion of Australian children” were still scrolling banned platforms.",
  "title": "Australia’s online watchdog targets Roblox and Minecraft over extreme content"
}