Kids and Select accounts: what each one allows, game by game and chat by chat
Roblox has two account types for under-16s. Kids runs from 5 to 8 and starts with chat off; Select runs from 9 to 15 and allows more. Here is the full table of what changes in each, with what a guardian can adjust.
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Roblox does not treat everyone the same, and that is deliberate. The platform's users range from 5 years old to over 25, and the company's answer to that mix was to create separate account types for under-16s.
There are two: Roblox Kids, 5 to 8, and Roblox Select, 9 to 15. Each is born with different built-in guardrails, and a guardian with a linked account adjusts the rest. This piece compares the two, item by item.
The short answer
Roblox Kids (5 to 8). It is the most closed account. Only games with the platform's lowest maturity rating appear. Chat comes switched off — and off means off, not limited. The guardian can switch on in-game chat, which appears as a live scrolling feed, visible to all age-appropriate users and to trusted friends playing the same game. The guardian can also switch on one-on-one chat inside a game, with someone age-appropriate or a trusted friend. If chat is allowed, a 5-to-8-year-old talks to people aged 5 to 12. Chat outside games is disabled.
Roblox Select (9 to 15). More open. Games can carry a maturity rating up to Moderate, and the guardian can reduce that level for children aged 9 to 12. In-game chat is already on between age-appropriate users and trusted friends in the same game. The chat tab, which is conversation away from a match, works differently by age: from 9 to 12, trusted friends only; from 13 to 15, trusted friends and friends in a similar age group. One-on-one chat inside games comes switched off. And the guardian can switch chat off for anyone under 13.
How to tell which account you are on
The account type follows the account's age, and the age comes from the check. In practice:
- Look at what appears in search. If games your friends play do not appear for you, the rating filter is at work — it is the most visible sign.
- Look at chat. Chat being entirely absent points to Kids. In-game chat working but the chat tab limited points to Select.
- Ask the guardian to open the controls. With the account linked, the parental control panel shows what is on and what is not, on the guardian's device.
If something seems locked for no reason, that is almost always the explanation — not a problem with the app.
Kids and Select, side by side
The table puts the two accounts on the same line for each item, which is the quickest way to see what changes when you move from one to the other.
One asymmetry the table shows is worth noticing, because it surprises people: one-on-one chat inside a game exists as an option on a Kids account, if the guardian switches it on, and comes switched off on Select. That is not a misreading. On Kids it is a deliberate case-by-case release by the guardian; on Select, the design preferred the collective chat of the match.
The catches
Accounts and controls vary by region. The page itself warns about this right at the top: chat and voice chat may be disabled in your region, and video chat does not exist in any region. What applies to you may be more restrictive than the table shows.
Switching chat on does not open the whole platform. Even when a guardian allows it, chat is still limited by age. A 6-year-old with chat on talks to the 5-to-12 bracket, not to anyone.
A game rating is a label, not a taste. The filter acts on the maturity rating the game declares. A heavy game rated badly can get through, and a light game rated strictly may not appear.
A trusted friend crosses the age rule. It is the exception designed for family and the inner circle, and for that reason the list should be short. Every name there is someone who talks outside the normal barriers.
Changing account type is not something you choose. The account type follows the age, and the age comes from the check. There is no "I want Select" button.
The game's chat feed is public to everyone there. On a Kids account with chat on, what is written appears in a live scrolling feed visible to all age-appropriate users in the same game. It is not a private conversation.
What to do next
If you are a guardian, the step that unlocks everything is linking your account to the child's. Without the link, the controls do not appear on your device and you cannot adjust anything in this table.
With the link done, the useful approach is one decision at a time: start with chat, which is the item with the most consequence, and only then touch game ratings. Changing everything at once makes it impossible to know which change caused what in the child's experience.
And if you are the player and found your account too restricted, the conversation is with whoever manages the link. Complaining about the app changes nothing — what is acting there is a setting, and it has an owner.
It is worth understanding the reasoning behind this split, because it explains why certain things feel arbitrary. The platform did not try to create a "children's" version and an "adult" one: it created brackets that approximate what actually changes between a 6-year-old and a 14-year-old. At 5 to 8, talking to a stranger is the bigger risk, so the default is not talking. From 9 to 12, the risk shifts to game content, and that is where the rating control comes in. From 13 to 15, the player already moves socially, and the design opens conversation with a similar bracket while keeping the barrier against unknown adults.
Seen that way, each line of the table stops being a memorised rule and becomes a decision with a reason — which helps anyone who has to explain a restriction to a child who does not understand why their friend can and they cannot.
Sources
Ready-to-use artifact
| Item | Roblox Kids (5 to 8) | Roblox Select (9 to 15) |
|---|---|---|
| Game ratings | lowest only: Minimal and Mild | up to Moderate |
| Chat inside a game | off; the guardian can switch it on | on between age-appropriate users and trusted friends |
| One-on-one chat inside a game | the guardian can switch it on with someone age-appropriate or a trusted friend | off |
| Chat tab (outside a game) | disabled | 9 to 12: trusted friends only; 13 to 15: trusted friends and friends of a similar age |
| Who they talk to, if allowed | people aged 5 to 12 | age-appropriate users and trusted friends |
| Guardian controls | all of them, through the linked account | can reduce the rating for 9 to 12 and switch chat off under 13 |
Comparison checked against the official safety-by-age page on 23/09/2026. Accounts and controls vary by region. Source: about.roblox.com/safety-by-age
