July 23, 2025 • 12 mins
My guest is Tami Bhaumik, the Vice-President of Civility and Partnerships at Roblox, here to explain the new safeguards Roblox has rolled out to help kids and parents stay safe by being able to better control connections between users.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week on iHeart Sensey.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Roadblocks is one of the largest online gaming platforms in
the world.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
And with that enormous appeal comes enormous responsibility. Today, my
guest is here from Roadblocks to explain their new online
safety features they've rolled out for kids who play. Tammy
Bamak is the vice president of Civility and Partnerships at Roadblocks.
The company is investing in safeguards to give kids and
parents the tools to keep their kids from connecting with
(00:29):
people they don't know and improving the communication with the
trusted ones they do.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's bringing people together, So connections to one another is
really what's driving the popularity of Roadblocks, and it's just
fun to play on Now.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
On iHeart Sensey, that's for another episode of iHeart Sinsey.
I'm Sandy Collins today talking to Roadblocks, the folks that
make that incredibly addictive and wonderful fun game that your
kids like to play online constantly, and with all of
the concerns that parents have about their online predators and
extortion and all these issues that come up that you
(01:08):
just never know who your kids are going to be
talking to, You're going to be happy to hear about
this you rollout of Safety Guards Kids for the app
for Roadblocks. I'm talking with the vice president of Civility
Trust and the Partnerships, Tammy Boumac.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
She's in California. We caught up this week to talk
about the new changes at Roadblocks. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I am here.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Very big topic, yeah, very important topic.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
As a mom, I'm pretty familiar with this video on
gaming concern and I understand that you at Roadblocks are
doing something about it. So we wanted to talk about
that and find out what kind of changes you all
are making there to make roadblocks a little bit safer.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
But Tammy, you you're a California native.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
You went to UC Berkeley, and you spent your career
focusing on keeping kids safe.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Isn't that right? That is true? That's exactly it.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I've been at Roadblocks for nine years and you know,
faithy has always been top priority.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
The biggest concern about being online for parents either predators
or you know, sex talk. What are the main concerns
that parents tell you about through Roadblocks? What are the
concerns that they have about their kids safety online?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
We actually connected a survey of parents who basically told
us that the main concern what the lack of visibility
into who their kids were talking to online, so we
have done something about it. Today, we're introducing four new
features that we're pretty excited to share. The first feature
(02:40):
is Trusted Connections. So teens who are thirteen and older
they can use a new age verification tool that we
have called age Estimation. And what it does. You take
a quick selfie video that determines your age to determine
that you were indeed over thirteen years old. If you're
(03:02):
over thirteen year old, you now have access.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
To something called trusted Connections.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And this is something that you can connect through your
phone contacts or through a QR code, which allows you
to connect to people that you know in real life.
If you're able to connect to those trusted connections, we
remove the filters in chat, allowing you to communicate much
(03:28):
more naturally like you do in real life. Of course,
all of the communication is still proactively monitored for critical
harms so that we can make sure that teens remain
safe on roadblocks.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Where do the contacts come from?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So the contexts come from your phone list on your
phone or through a QR code, And so if you're
scanning somebody's QR code. That means that you actually have
to be in the same vicinity as they are in
order to do that, which further confirms that you indeed
know the person. The other feature that we are introducing
(04:07):
is age estimation, and this one is a big one.
Sandy Roadblox is the only major platform introducing age verification.
We're requiring age verification like facial estimation in order to
get access to features like trusted connections and so. What
you do with age verification, it's a quick and simple
(04:29):
selfie video that determines whether you're thirteen plus.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Now we know that there are some thirteen year olds
will look twenty three, and we know that there are
some thirteen year olds that look eight.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
How do you get around that? That's right?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So the age estimation software that we are using is
pretty accurate, but if it determines that the child is
younger than thirteen, it will not allow access to these
new features. You can go in if you are fifteen
years old. Indeed, you could use your government issued ID
(05:06):
or parental verification in order to verify the age that
you are.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
So everyone who has roadblocks, now are they now having
to go through this new filter process. With this rolling
out of more safety features.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
For thirteen plus for thirteen years an older, it is optional,
so if they want access to these added features, they
would need to go through age estimation.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
So parents should know that you want your kids to
get to the verified stuff and maybe encourage them to
sign up for that, because I'm just guessing the fourteen
year old in my life, she may not want to
passle with the you know, adding more things to it.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
She just wants to play roadblocks because it's her favorite game.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Absolutely. Well, you know, one of the things that we
hear from teens, and again we do a lot of surveys,
We do a lot of research with academics and teens themselves,
and one of the things that teens tell us is
that because we are so safe, we have hashtags, we
filter out a lot of conversations that we feel infringe
(06:14):
upon our guidelines. So with teens, there's natural conversations that happen,
so they're going to want to actually chat without filters,
So we think that they're really going to embrace it
a good.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Well for those who are just popping into the show,
my name is Sandy Collins and this is iHeart Sinsey
a public affairs show in the tri State with information
from Roadblocks today and Tammy Baumik, she's the vice president
of Civility and Partnerships, talking about the new safeguards that
Roadblocks has rolled out to keep your kids safe when
they're playing Roadblocks. For those parents who know their kids
(06:48):
play Roadblocks like mine did, but have no idea what
the game is about, could you just give me your
elevator speech on what the game does and why kids
love it so much?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yes, absolutely so. Roadblocks is one of the largest online
gaming platforms in the world. It is all of the
content on the platform is actually created by users and
users themselves and that's what really really makes it unique
is that these young people are coding, they're designing, they're
(07:20):
developing games. We now have millions and millions of experiences
on the platform, and they invite their friends to play
along with them. And really that's what has driven the
popularity of the platform is creativity. But more importantly, it's
bringing people together. So connections to one another is really what's.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Driving the popularity of Roadblocks.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And it's just fun to play on and what are
they playing everything? There are learning games, there are hangout games,
there are puzzles, there are adventure games. Any genre that
you're interested in, there's something for you.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Okay, now it's starting to make sense a little bit.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I think I'm confusing it with that game where you
go through with a hammer and you just smash everything
and then you rebuild it or something.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I don't even know what that is.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So I remember we have games like that as well,
games like that as well, And I think because there
are so many different types of games on the platform,
we're continuing to evolve these safety features and giving transparency
to parents. So you know, we are also announcing parental
insights so parents can see what their teens are playing,
(08:38):
how long they're playing, and what they're spending, the amount
of screen time that they're spending. We're also introducing well
being tools for teens. We have the ability for teens
to show when they're online or offline. They can now
set their own screen time limits to make sure that
they have healthy habits, and they can also turn on
(08:59):
do not.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Do kids actually use that filter to monitor their own
screen time?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
You know? Surprisingly yes, I mean that our team council
is telling us that they want to use these features.
I think this younger generation is really really taking hold
that their mental health and their digital health are combined,
so they're actually embracing features like this.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Yeah, they're a lot smarter about things than we were
back in the day. I remember when video games certainly
are It was all competitive, and it was all win
or lose, and there was an enormous amount of frustration
in not being able to complete the game and you
were out game over. And then the developers apparently realized
that first of all, girls like to build things for
(09:44):
the most part, and there are many boys like to
build things, and second of all that the frustration level,
if you get rid of that and make it a
positive experience, the kids will stay on for a long time.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Is that like kind of backfired in a way.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah. I think that with Roadblocks, what we're really trying
to focus on is creating a platform where everyone's having
fun and connecting with each other and doing it in
a way that they feel safe. Because the reality is
if you don't feel safe, if you don't you're not
having fun, You're going to leave. And so we're doing
everything in our power to make sure that all of
(10:22):
the connections that are made on Roadblocks are ones that
are positive. And focused on developing and innovating on tools
that give confidence to parents that the platform is safe
even if they don't utilize our bevy of parental controls.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Tammy, how do parents make sure that their kids are
using these parental controls or activating these features? How do
they check their phone or what kind of mechanism do
they use in order to follow up?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
You know, I think it's purely sitting down and having conversations,
really really honest conversations with them. You know, with parents
of younger children, we do have these features that they
can go in and link to their child's account and
get visibility into their friends, their spend limits, the time
that they're spending online, and maturity content accessibility. So I
(11:21):
think that for parents it's really more than anything about
having honest conversations.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Sounds good, Well, you certainly opened up a door for
more safety, and I think these parental controls and these
trusted connections, the age estimator and such all will go
a long way to help kids stay safe as they
play Roadblocks, the biggest game out there. Tammy Balmik, thank
you so much for being here from Roadblocks and is
(11:49):
there any other information that you want to pass along
before we take off.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Just one Sandy more details on roadblocks, dot com, Forward
Slash Safety Center.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Thank you, Tammy, I appreciate there's work coming up next
on iHeart Cincy
This week on iHeart Sensey.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Roadblocks is one of the largest online gaming platforms in
the world.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
And with that enormous appeal comes enormous responsibility. Today, my
guest is here from Roadblocks to explain their new online
safety features they've rolled out for kids who play. Tammy
Bamak is the vice president of Civility and Partnerships at Roadblocks.
The company is investing in safeguards to give kids and
parents the tools to keep their kids from connecting with
(00:29):
people they don't know and improving the communication with the
trusted ones they do.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It's bringing people together, So connections to one another is
really what's driving the popularity of Roadblocks, and it's just
fun to play on Now.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
On iHeart Sensey, that's for another episode of iHeart Sinsey.
I'm Sandy Collins today talking to Roadblocks, the folks that
make that incredibly addictive and wonderful fun game that your
kids like to play online constantly, and with all of
the concerns that parents have about their online predators and
extortion and all these issues that come up that you
(01:08):
just never know who your kids are going to be
talking to, You're going to be happy to hear about
this you rollout of Safety Guards Kids for the app
for Roadblocks. I'm talking with the vice president of Civility
Trust and the Partnerships, Tammy Boumac.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
She's in California. We caught up this week to talk
about the new changes at Roadblocks. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I am here.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Very big topic, yeah, very important topic.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
As a mom, I'm pretty familiar with this video on
gaming concern and I understand that you at Roadblocks are
doing something about it. So we wanted to talk about
that and find out what kind of changes you all
are making there to make roadblocks a little bit safer.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
But Tammy, you you're a California native.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
You went to UC Berkeley, and you spent your career
focusing on keeping kids safe.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Isn't that right? That is true? That's exactly it.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I've been at Roadblocks for nine years and you know,
faithy has always been top priority.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
The biggest concern about being online for parents either predators
or you know, sex talk. What are the main concerns
that parents tell you about through Roadblocks? What are the
concerns that they have about their kids safety online?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
We actually connected a survey of parents who basically told
us that the main concern what the lack of visibility
into who their kids were talking to online, so we
have done something about it. Today, we're introducing four new
features that we're pretty excited to share. The first feature
(02:40):
is Trusted Connections. So teens who are thirteen and older
they can use a new age verification tool that we
have called age Estimation. And what it does. You take
a quick selfie video that determines your age to determine
that you were indeed over thirteen years old. If you're
(03:02):
over thirteen year old, you now have access.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
To something called trusted Connections.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And this is something that you can connect through your
phone contacts or through a QR code, which allows you
to connect to people that you know in real life.
If you're able to connect to those trusted connections, we
remove the filters in chat, allowing you to communicate much
(03:28):
more naturally like you do in real life. Of course,
all of the communication is still proactively monitored for critical
harms so that we can make sure that teens remain
safe on roadblocks.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Where do the contacts come from?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So the contexts come from your phone list on your
phone or through a QR code, And so if you're
scanning somebody's QR code. That means that you actually have
to be in the same vicinity as they are in
order to do that, which further confirms that you indeed
know the person. The other feature that we are introducing
(04:07):
is age estimation, and this one is a big one.
Sandy Roadblox is the only major platform introducing age verification.
We're requiring age verification like facial estimation in order to
get access to features like trusted connections and so. What
you do with age verification, it's a quick and simple
(04:29):
selfie video that determines whether you're thirteen plus.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Now we know that there are some thirteen year olds
will look twenty three, and we know that there are
some thirteen year olds that look eight.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
How do you get around that? That's right?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So the age estimation software that we are using is
pretty accurate, but if it determines that the child is
younger than thirteen, it will not allow access to these
new features. You can go in if you are fifteen
years old. Indeed, you could use your government issued ID
(05:06):
or parental verification in order to verify the age that
you are.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
So everyone who has roadblocks, now are they now having
to go through this new filter process. With this rolling
out of more safety features.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
For thirteen plus for thirteen years an older, it is optional,
so if they want access to these added features, they
would need to go through age estimation.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
So parents should know that you want your kids to
get to the verified stuff and maybe encourage them to
sign up for that, because I'm just guessing the fourteen
year old in my life, she may not want to
passle with the you know, adding more things to it.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
She just wants to play roadblocks because it's her favorite game.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Absolutely. Well, you know, one of the things that we
hear from teens, and again we do a lot of surveys,
We do a lot of research with academics and teens themselves,
and one of the things that teens tell us is
that because we are so safe, we have hashtags, we
filter out a lot of conversations that we feel infringe
(06:14):
upon our guidelines. So with teens, there's natural conversations that happen,
so they're going to want to actually chat without filters,
So we think that they're really going to embrace it
a good.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Well for those who are just popping into the show,
my name is Sandy Collins and this is iHeart Sinsey
a public affairs show in the tri State with information
from Roadblocks today and Tammy Baumik, she's the vice president
of Civility and Partnerships, talking about the new safeguards that
Roadblocks has rolled out to keep your kids safe when
they're playing Roadblocks. For those parents who know their kids
(06:48):
play Roadblocks like mine did, but have no idea what
the game is about, could you just give me your
elevator speech on what the game does and why kids
love it so much?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yes, absolutely so. Roadblocks is one of the largest online
gaming platforms in the world. It is all of the
content on the platform is actually created by users and
users themselves and that's what really really makes it unique
is that these young people are coding, they're designing, they're
(07:20):
developing games. We now have millions and millions of experiences
on the platform, and they invite their friends to play
along with them. And really that's what has driven the
popularity of the platform is creativity. But more importantly, it's
bringing people together. So connections to one another is really what's.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Driving the popularity of Roadblocks.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And it's just fun to play on and what are
they playing everything? There are learning games, there are hangout games,
there are puzzles, there are adventure games. Any genre that
you're interested in, there's something for you.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Okay, now it's starting to make sense a little bit.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I think I'm confusing it with that game where you
go through with a hammer and you just smash everything
and then you rebuild it or something.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I don't even know what that is.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
So I remember we have games like that as well,
games like that as well, And I think because there
are so many different types of games on the platform,
we're continuing to evolve these safety features and giving transparency
to parents. So you know, we are also announcing parental
insights so parents can see what their teens are playing,
(08:38):
how long they're playing, and what they're spending, the amount
of screen time that they're spending. We're also introducing well
being tools for teens. We have the ability for teens
to show when they're online or offline. They can now
set their own screen time limits to make sure that
they have healthy habits, and they can also turn on
(08:59):
do not.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Do kids actually use that filter to monitor their own
screen time?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
You know? Surprisingly yes, I mean that our team council
is telling us that they want to use these features.
I think this younger generation is really really taking hold
that their mental health and their digital health are combined,
so they're actually embracing features like this.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Yeah, they're a lot smarter about things than we were
back in the day. I remember when video games certainly
are It was all competitive, and it was all win
or lose, and there was an enormous amount of frustration
in not being able to complete the game and you
were out game over. And then the developers apparently realized
that first of all, girls like to build things for
(09:44):
the most part, and there are many boys like to
build things, and second of all that the frustration level,
if you get rid of that and make it a
positive experience, the kids will stay on for a long time.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Is that like kind of backfired in a way.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah. I think that with Roadblocks, what we're really trying
to focus on is creating a platform where everyone's having
fun and connecting with each other and doing it in
a way that they feel safe. Because the reality is
if you don't feel safe, if you don't you're not
having fun, You're going to leave. And so we're doing
everything in our power to make sure that all of
(10:22):
the connections that are made on Roadblocks are ones that
are positive. And focused on developing and innovating on tools
that give confidence to parents that the platform is safe
even if they don't utilize our bevy of parental controls.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Tammy, how do parents make sure that their kids are
using these parental controls or activating these features? How do
they check their phone or what kind of mechanism do
they use in order to follow up?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
You know, I think it's purely sitting down and having conversations,
really really honest conversations with them. You know, with parents
of younger children, we do have these features that they
can go in and link to their child's account and
get visibility into their friends, their spend limits, the time
that they're spending online, and maturity content accessibility. So I
(11:21):
think that for parents it's really more than anything about
having honest conversations.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Sounds good, Well, you certainly opened up a door for
more safety, and I think these parental controls and these
trusted connections, the age estimator and such all will go
a long way to help kids stay safe as they
play Roadblocks, the biggest game out there. Tammy Balmik, thank
you so much for being here from Roadblocks and is
(11:49):
there any other information that you want to pass along
before we take off.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Just one Sandy more details on roadblocks, dot com, Forward
Slash Safety Center.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Thank you, Tammy, I appreciate there's work coming up next
on iHeart Cincy
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