By: Rachel Bardill

The digital playgrounds of today are vast and bustling, with platforms like Roblox offering kids endless opportunities to play, create and explore. While I am a huge fan, I approach Roblox with great care and caution. Ensuring the safety of young children and protecting the brands I work with are always my top priorities—and these things are not always easy to achieve.

Roblox is increasingly becoming the go-to space for quality family time, with over 90 million daily active users and counting, and 70% of parents choosing it for co-gaming experiences with their young kids. Yet, as these kinds of platforms grow, so do concerns about safety, age-appropriateness, revenue opportunities, and the integrity of brand spaces within their user-generated environments.

The Challenge: Balancing creativity, safety and monetization
My conversations with IP owners, broadcasters and gaming companies often reveal similar concerns. As user-generated platforms like Roblox expand, several challenges emerge:

Safety concerns: Parents worry about inappropriate content, unmoderated interactions, and insufficient parental controls.

Fractured, inappropriate experiences: Kids often navigate scattered, disconnected spaces that lack cohesion or clear educational value, with some questionable gaming patterns not designed for young players.

Limited parent involvement: While Roblox includes some parent-focused features, opportunities for co-play and deeper involvement in children’s activities are limited.

Brand integrity: Companies entering these platforms risk their reputation if they fail to deliver safe, high-quality experiences while monetizing responsibly.

Despite these challenges, the opportunities are equally significant, if executed thoughtfully. With robust safety features and intentional design, platforms like Roblox can become trusted digital playgrounds and effective revenue drivers.

Building safe, engaging play spaces
For brands and developers looking to enter platforms like Roblox responsibly, here are five key takeaways:

1. Prioritize safety: This should always be the first concern. Implement moderation tools, content filters and parental controls from the outset. A safe experience builds trust with families and fosters long-term engagement.
2. Start small and iterate: Don’t shy away from beginning with a focused, manageable concept. Test features, gather feedback and refine before scaling.
3. Focus on simplicity: Younger players benefit from intuitive game patterns, limited multiplayer interactions, guided experiences and clear missions. Games should balance fun with learning opportunities.
4. Foster creativity: Provide simple tools for players to personalize their experience, such as creating their own spaces or contributing to the game’s narrative. Fans are made when you offer a piece of your brand to play with.
5. Monetize responsibly: Be cautious and transparent with monetization. Offer optional paid features that enhance the experience without creating barriers to play. Avoid “pay-to-play” models, keep costs reasonable and prioritize clarity to maintain trust.

Steps for preschool brands to get onto Roblox (without a big budget)
So where do we start, you ask? Roblox offers a huge opportunity for preschool brands, even with limited resources. I hear time and again the concerns about budgets (no, you don’t have to have a six-figure budget to start exploring this space) and knowledge of how to do this with integrity intact (no, you don’t need to chase dark gaming patterns to be a success). Here is my step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Start with market research – Study successful kids games and community behavior. Research the position of your brand with your audience.

Step 2: Build a simple, low-cost small game – Find studios that are Roblox-certified, and that have existing templates and long-standing experience in the preschool game space.

Step 3: Focus on brand-aligned gameplay – Roleplay, challenge, obstacle or storytelling games fit preschoolers best. 

Step 4: Engage influencers & micro-creators – This is a great way to drive organic traffic. 

Step 5: Use community engagement & collaborations with existing games to grow – Start small, iterate and test—Roblox success is built through engagement, not just spend.

Building a better future for digital play
Platforms like Roblox represent a transformative opportunity for brands to connect with kids and families in meaningful ways. Increasingly, there are examples of good games and experiences for younger kids that show it is possible to create curated, family-friendly digital spaces where creativity thrives, safety is paramount, and brands can grow with integrity.

My hope is that we can create “play here first” spaces for kids and families entering the digital play ecosystem. As the industry and platforms like Roblox continue to evolve, it’s time to prioritize thoughtful design and collaborative solutions. By doing so, we can ensure that platforms like Roblox become not just digital playgrounds, but trusted havens for kids and families alike.

Rachel Bardill is the founder of Bar Digital, a consulting firm working with clients to bridge the gap between brands and young audiences in digital spaces. She also worked for BBC Children’s for more than 20 years, steering digital growth for IPs such as Bluey and Hey Duggee during her tenure with the UK public broadcaster.