Every week e-safety adviser Alan Mackenzie sends me weekly updates. They are useful teaching resources but also parent guides to keep you up to date with current trends.
Here are a few tips from this week’s updates:
Roblox – Polybuzz
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve received a few emails from Primary schools with concerns (raised by parents) about an apparent game within Roblox called Polybuzz (sometimes referred to as Polyfuzz).
Polybuzz is an Ai chat app I looked at a few months ago and I had concerns at the time, primarily because it is an 18+ app and therefore undoubtedly there is going to be content/chat unsuitable for children. Further to that, Polybuzz is ‘supposed’ to have highly robust age verification in place meaning users below the age of 18 can’t use it, however we all know that this can be circumvented.
I haven’t looked at this personally but it sounds like this is a pop-up advertisement rather than a game within Roblox, and these ads are now very common to see across games, social media and other platforms. What is disappointing from the context of Roblox is that age-inappropriate ads are being shown to children when Roblox are supposed to know the ages of their users and therefore serve age-appropriate content/ads.
With the Xmas holidays coming up it might be worth reminding parents that Roblox has parental settings they can use, and it’s also worth checking what age their child has used if they have created their own profile. It may also be worth reminding children not to click on pop-ups but to seek the advice of their parents/carers first.
Roblox parental settings can be found HERE.
Updated Android Controls
From the beginning of December 2025 Google is releasing new and updated parental controls for Android devices. These include:
- Set the amount of screen time that can be spent on a device each day to help establish healthy habits.
- Set downtime schedules to automatically lock the device at night to ensure restful sleep without distraction.
- Control app usage by limiting time spent on specific apps, or blocking apps entirely.
- Add more time by granting extra minutes when a time limit is reached, or to extend a scheduled break.
You can find further details about these updates on the Google blog HERE and Internet Matters have a handy Android guide for parents which you can find HERE.
