Australia says platforms like Steam and Roblox have significant child safety gaps

Australia's online safety regulator has found significant gaps in how popular gaming platforms protect children from online harm. The eSafety Commission's report examined Steam, Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft — platforms used by nine in ten Australian children aged 8 to 17. Commissioner Julie Inman Grant warned that weak safety measures allow predatory adults to contact and groom children for sexual exploitation or radicalisation.

Valve singled out for failing to act

The report found that Valve, the US company behind Steam, was the only provider not using widely adopted technology to detect and remove known harmful content. Valve also did not proactively scan chats for child sexual exploitation material, with its systems mainly flagging scams. Roblox and Valve were both criticised for training their language detection systems on internal data only.

Age verification and information sharing concerns

Minecraft and Fortnite generally allowed users to self-declare their age, meaning adults could easily access higher-risk features. Steam recently introduced credit card-based age checks, while Roblox strengthened its own checks since December. Australia, which introduced a world-first social media ban for under-16s last year, is now pressing gaming platforms to raise their standards.