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Australia’s eSafety Commissioner found substantial differences in how Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft and Steam addressed child-safety risks during the six months ending 31 March 2026. The report compares services’ disclosed protections; it does not conclude that every game on them is unsafe, or that gaming itself causes harm. eSafety also says receiving a transparency notice does not by itself mean a provider has deficient practices or indicate the regulator’s view of its compliance.
What eSafety examined—and what its findings mean
On 1 April 2026, eSafety issued non-periodic transparency notices to Roblox, Mojang Studios (Minecraft), Epic Games (Fortnite) and Valve (Steam and Steam Chat). The companies were required to describe measures addressing child sexual exploitation and abuse, violent material and activity, cyberbullying and online hate. The report covers protections between 1 October 2025 and 31 March 2026. The regulator selected the services because of their popularity among Australian children and users. Read eSafety’s transparency report.
The report is about providers’ systems and disclosures in a defined period, not a verdict on every individual game or player experience. That distinction matters because online gaming can involve user-created content, social features, chat and third-party servers. A store rating or a child’s account setting alone cannot tell a parent how those features are detected, moderated or supported when someone raises a concern.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesOnline games are widely used in Australia: in 2024, eSafety reported that 89% of children aged 8–17 had played online games in the previous year, 79% had played a multiplayer online game, and 40% had played online with people they did not know offline. These are 2024 figures, not a new 2026 survey.
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How the four services’ controls differed
eSafety describes different approaches and gaps, not a single safety score. These examples show why the details of a platform’s controls matter.
| Service | Game and user-created content review | Detection and chat | Age assurance and features | Information sharing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fortnite (Epic Games) | Epic reviewed each Fortnite Island before it became accessible. | Chat monitoring used internal and synthetically generated data seeded with external lists. | Generally relied on self-declared ages at signup; users declaring themselves adults could access some higher-risk features without further checks. | Did not share child sexual exploitation and abuse signals through Lantern. |
| Minecraft (Mojang Studios) | Self-declared adults could enter third-party-hosted worlds that Mojang did not proactively moderate. | Used external keyword lists concerning violence, but not child sexual exploitation and abuse. | Generally relied on self-declared ages at signup; some higher-risk features were available to users declaring themselves adults without further checks. | Participated in some cross-industry initiatives. |
| Roblox | Used tools to identify harmful user-created Experiences after publication. | Relied on internal data to train language-analysis models and did not regularly retrain them; eSafety said several tools were not frequently updated against their training data. | Introduced stronger age assurance measures for Australian users on 3 December 2025, limiting certain higher-risk features to users identified as adults. | Participated in some cross-industry initiatives. |
| Steam and Steam Chat (Valve) | Had pre-publication review processes, but relied on user reports to identify unlawful material in published games. | Was the only provider not using hash-matching tools across Steam and Steam Chat. It lacked proactive harm-detection tools in Steam Chat and Steam Community group chats, apart from a URL tool mainly used to block scams. | During the report period, relied on self-declared age and did not collect age-related information. | Did not participate in any of the cross-industry initiatives covered by the report. |
For Steam Chat and Steam Community group chats, eSafety said the absence of proactive detection meant limited protection against child sexual exploitation and abuse and violence material and activity. This finding concerns those disclosed controls during the reporting period; it is not a claim that every chat contains such material.
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The regulator also reported variation in report-response times, trust-and-safety staffing, language coverage and efforts to identify users returning after bans. The report does not establish a common metric that would turn these differences into an overall ranking of the four services.
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During the six months covered by the report, Epic and Mojang generally relied on users’ self-declared ages at signup, while Valve relied on self-declared age and did not collect age-related information. Roblox began stronger age assurance for Australian users on 3 December 2025, restricting certain higher-risk features to users identified as adults. These are report-period findings, not a description of every later product change.
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Separately, eSafety’s media release says Steam began using credit-card age checks in Australia from 9 September 2026 for R18+ games under the app distribution code. The Commissioner said eSafety was seeking additional age-assurance options. That later change should not be confused with Steam’s practices during the transparency report’s October 2025–March 2026 period. See the eSafety media release.
Roblox: a separate eSafety undertaking
A separate enforcement update describes eSafety testing earlier in 2026. The regulator said its testing found that adults could send connection requests to young Australian children without parental consent; children and adults could view and respond to one another’s out-of-game forum posts without consent; children’s connections were visible to anyone on Roblox; and profile details—including usernames, connections, avatars and non-sensitive biographical information—could be viewed without an option to restrict that visibility. These are findings from the regulator’s testing, not proof that every Roblox user had the same experience.
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Roblox agreed to measures that include preventing adults from contacting unknown children without parental consent, making children’s accounts private by default, improving complaint mechanisms and notifying users of outcomes, and commissioning an independent third-party audit of safety measures including age estimation. eSafety said the company had three months to implement the changes and could face Federal Court action for breaching the undertaking. The regulator cited an estimate of about 1.7 million Australian children on Roblox, attributed to recent national research; its release does not name the research organisation in the body text. Read eSafety’s Roblox undertaking update.
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Why proactive detection and information sharing matter
Reviewing content before or after it appears
Epic’s review of every Fortnite Island before access is a different intervention from Roblox’s post-publication identification tools. Valve’s pre-publication processes also did not remove the need for users to report unlawful material in already published games. In Minecraft, the report’s concern was third-party-hosted worlds that Mojang did not proactively moderate. These approaches affect when a service may identify a problem; they do not establish that harmful material is present in every game or world.
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- 【Excellent Stereo Sound & Noise Isolation】High precision 40 mm driver, bring you vivid sound field, sound clarity, sound shock feeling, splendid ambient noise isolation, BlueFire Gaming Headset uses advanced active noise reduction technology quells airplane cabin noise, city traffic or a busy office. So you can focus more on what matters—your music, movies, videos and games.
- 【Comfortable and Light Weight】 The headset used skin-friendly leather material with Self-adjusting head beam and head cushion design ensures perfect fit with different head sizes (suitable for both adults and kids) and super soft Over-ear pads that is more comfortable for long time gaming.
- 【Long Soft Cord】 Over 6.8 feet! Which for a video gamer this is perfect, no need to sit right in front of the TV. Having such a long cord allows for much more movement and be comfortably.
- 【Smooth Mic and Volume Control 】There is a small controller on the cord, allowing you to turn the mic on and off, and the volume up and down with ease.
- 【Widely Compatible and Versatile 】For PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Desktop Computer, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, Laptop, PSP, Tablet, iPad, Cell Phone. Please note you need an extra Microsoft Adapter (Not Included) when connect with an old version Xbox One controller.
Finding harmful material and language
Most services reported using proactive tools, but eSafety found differences in their reach and development. Roblox and Valve relied on internal data to train language-analysis models and did not regularly retrain them. Mojang used external keyword lists about violence but not child sexual exploitation and abuse. Epic used internal and synthetically generated data, seeded with external lists, for chat monitoring. These statements describe reported practices during the period covered, not verified performance of systems after March 2026.
Sharing signals across services
eSafety says shared signals can help services respond to risks that follow users across interconnected platforms. In the report, Minecraft and Roblox participated in some cross-industry initiatives, Valve did not participate in any such initiatives, and Epic did not share child sexual exploitation and abuse signals through Lantern. Participation is one part of the picture; it should not be treated as a stand-alone measure of overall safety.
What parents can do when a child plays online
No setting can eliminate every risk, but parents can make the services’ social features easier to understand and discuss. eSafety’s Gaming Toolkit and Gaming Guide for Parents cover getting started, playing together, interacting with others, in-game spending and sharing safely.
- Ask where and with whom they play. Find out whether a child plays only a game’s official experience or also uses user-created worlds, public servers, group chats or out-of-game forums.
- Review social and privacy options together. Check who can contact the child, see profile details, invite them to a game or add them as a connection. Explain that privacy settings reduce exposure but cannot guarantee that all interactions are safe.
- Agree on a response to uncomfortable contact. Encourage the child to stop replying, save relevant details where appropriate, block or report the account, and tell a trusted adult. Use the service’s reporting tools for content or behaviour that violates its rules.
- Revisit account settings as features change. Age checks, chat options and default privacy controls can differ by service, region and date. Check the current controls in the child’s account rather than assuming a setting carries over from another game.
- Keep the conversation open. Talk about requests to move to another app, share personal details, send images or keep a conversation secret. A child should know they can ask for help without being blamed for receiving a message.
What the report does not establish
Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said Australian children “have a right to play online without being exposed to predators, sexual extortionists, violent extremist content or other harmful material.” In a separate blog, she pointed to examples including bathroom-simulator games, mass-shooting recreations and terrorist propaganda while arguing for safety to be built into products from the outset. These are examples she described, not estimates of how common such content is. Read the Commissioner’s Safety by Design blog.
The report does not prove wrongdoing merely because a provider received a notice, establish that every game on a service contains harmful material, or show that gaming itself causes grooming, radicalisation or violence. It compares providers’ disclosed safety measures and reported performance in a particular period. eSafety’s findings are most useful as a reminder that controls differ—and that families should consider a platform’s content, chat, age and response systems alongside a game’s rating.
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