Roblox Offers Beta Of Proximity Voice Chat

Do you want to listen to 13-year-olds yelling at your online? If so, then Roblox has your fix, now offering Spacial Voice, a kind of proximity voice chat in its service. To participate in the beta for the feature (the full launch comes later this fall), you'll need to prove your identity to Roblox.

The details of how to do that were laid out in a blog post this week, and the gist of it is that you'll have to prove your identity to Roblox. You'll first need to provide an ID card of some kind, like a driver's license or passport. After that, you'll need "to capture a selfie to check for 'liveness' and 'likeness.'" The first is to ensure that you're a living, breathing person, and not just a static image, and the second is to prove that you're the same person as indicated on the documentation.

Roblox said that it will not store the personal information provided. It called this form of verification "a big milestone in our long-term vision of building a trusted, fun, and civil platform for everyone."

Whether all that comes to pass remains to be seen. Despite offering the ability to report abuse, it's hard to imagine any game company coming down too hard on toxic behavior, especially when it's not easily verifiable via a chat log and in involves teenagers -- and that's only taking into account typical "schoolyard banter," not the kind of serious issues that can arise when adults interact online with children. Maybe that's the cynical old man in me talking, but if I had the option to participate in this kind of system for this kind of game, or if I had kids who wanted to do it, I'd refuse. Am I the only one who thinks that way?