Australia’s online safety regulator has identified “significant” deficiencies in how prominent gaming platforms protect underage users. A new report highlights inconsistent child safety measures across Steam, Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft, underscoring the risks for the nine out of ten Australian children aged 8 to 17 who play online games.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant emphasized that children have the right to enjoy online gaming without exposure to predators, sexual extortionists, violent extremism, or other harmful content. She warned that weak safety protocols allow predatory adults to groom children for exploitation or radicalization.
The analysis found that Valve, the US company behind Steam, was the only provider among the four not to utilize a specific technology commonly used in the industry to detect and remove known harmful material. Furthermore, Valve was criticized for not proactively using tools to identify child sexual exploitation or violent content in chats, with existing systems primarily flagging scams rather than serious abuse.
Both Roblox and Valve were noted for relying solely on internal datasets to train their language detection systems and for not retraining these models regularly. In contrast, Minecraft and Fortnite generally allow users to self-declare their age. While Fortnite offers child accounts, the self-declaration system means anyone claiming to be an adult can access higher-risk communication features.
Inman-Grant stated that platforms must improve their efforts to combat severe harms, including child sexual exploitation and material that incites violence. The report acknowledged recent positive steps, such as Valve introducing credit card-based age checks and Roblox implementing stronger age verification since December of last year.
The investigation also highlighted discrepancies in how the platforms share information and participate in industry initiatives. Mojang Studios and Roblox shared expertise on combating online child sexual exploitation and violent extremism, but Valve did not. Additionally, Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, failed to report instances of breaches to other platforms through a global program designed to fight child abuse online.
The findings are based on data collected by the eSafety Commission between October 2025 and March 2026. Australia has gained international attention for its strict online safety laws, including a social media ban for users under 16 enacted last December, though gaming platforms were excluded from that specific regulation.
Roblox responded by stating it prioritizes the safety of its youngest users and has invested heavily in safeguards, including mandatory age checks. Requests for comment were sent to Valve, Fortnite, and Microsoft, which owns Minecraft.
Good on Australia for leading with this report. Parents can’t police everything alone; platforms must do more than just flag scams.
Age self-declaration is broken. My nephew claimed he was twenty and accessed everything immediately. It needs real verification.
Valve ignoring industry cooperation while others share data seems like a huge red flag. Why are they so resistant to collaboration?
I thought the under-16 ban covered all social media? Gaming platforms really should have been included in that legislation.
This is alarming. The lack of proactive abuse detection on Steam is frankly unacceptable for a platform of that size.