Portfolio — 13 April 2026

Minister for Communications Anika Wells disclosed this week that she met with Roblox co-founder and CEO David Baszucki in Brisbane in February, securing commitments from the platform to introduce child safety changes for under-16s globally from mid-year [TA-260413-infras-693da703c3db]. Those changes include chat and hangout restrictions designed to reduce exposure to inappropriate content and predators, along with expanded parental controls and visibility tools [TA-260413-infras-693da703c3db].

The timing of the disclosure connects directly to a broader policy move: the Government issued its response to the Online Safety Act review this week and announced it will legislate a Digital Duty of Care to embed proactive safety protections for young Australians as a standard requirement across online platforms [TA-260413-infras-693da703c3db].

The Roblox outcome illustrates the portfolio's operating model — direct ministerial engagement with platform leadership to extract concrete safety commitments, backed by the eSafety Commissioner's ongoing monitoring of compliance with the Online Safety Act and relevant industry codes. The Digital Duty of Care legislation, once enacted, would shift the framework from case-by-case negotiation toward standing statutory obligation, meaning platforms would carry ongoing proactive duties rather than responding to individual ministerial pressure.

The pairing of the Roblox announcement with the legislative response on the same week signals an intentional sequencing: a platform-specific win is used to illustrate what the new statutory standard is intended to normalise across the industry.