Australia says platforms like Steam and Roblox have 'significant' child safety gaps
Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft also told to 'lift their game' by online safety regulator.
The Australian eSafety Commissioner has reported significant safety gaps on popular gaming platforms such as Steam, Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft. This new study reveals that these platforms employ inconsistent methods to protect children, with nine out of ten children aged 8 to 17 in Australia playing online games. ESafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant emphasized that children should be able to play online without exposure to predators, sexual extortionists, violent extremist content, or other harmful material.
The report found that Valve, the company that owns Steam and Steam Chat, was the only platform not utilizing widely-used industry technology to detect and remove harmful content. Furthermore, Valve and Roblox utilized only internal datasets to train language detection systems, which were not regularly updated. Minecraft and Fortnite, which offer child accounts, generally allowed users to self-declare their age, meaning anyone who claimed to be an adult could access higher-risk communication features.
The report also noted that Steam relied on user self-declaration of age but acknowledged recent age checks using credit cards. Roblox strengthened its age checks in December last year. Another concern raised was the inconsistent information sharing among the four gaming platforms, with Valve not participating in industry initiatives to combat child sexual exploitation and violent extremism.
The report's findings were based on data collected by the Australian eSafety Commission between October 2025 and March 2026.
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