Russia's Roblox Ban Backfires: 63,000 Kids Defy Vladimir Putin

Russia banned Roblox earlier this month, and a whole lot of kids are not taking that quietly. We now have a flood of letters, some familiar Kremlin names weighing in, and a very public test coming up on December 19.

What actually happened

On December 3, 2025, Russia moved to completely block Roblox nationwide. The order came from Roskomnadzor, the state media and internet watchdog, which framed the platform as a child-safety risk. Interfax relayed the regulator's reasoning, which basically boiled down to: the game exposes minors to dangerous content and harms their morals.

Roskomnadzor cited exposure to "extremist materials," "calls for violence," and "LGBT propaganda," saying Roblox undermines a child's "spiritual and moral development."

Also worth noting: the ban puts Russia in a group of countries that have already barred Roblox, including China, Iran, the UAE, and North Korea. Not exactly a crowd known for light-touch internet policy.

Kids mail the Kremlin. A lot.

Soon after the ban, the Kremlin got hit with 63,000 letters from children asking for Roblox to be unblocked, according to The Moscow Times. The kids writing in are between 8 and 16 years old, which is both gutsy and, frankly, a little surprising to see at that scale.

That number wasn't just rumor. Yekaterina Mizulina, a prominent pro-censorship advocate who is very much in the Kremlin's corner, told her Telegram followers about the 63K letters. And Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed the deluge too, saying they had received "many" messages from children ahead of President Putin's annual press conference and televised call-in show on December 19, 2025. In other words: the timing is not accidental. This is teeing up as a question for the big stage.

Why Russia says Roblox had to go

Roskomnadzor's argument is straightforward: the platform isn't safe for kids, and the risks outweigh the benefits. The agency says Roblox hosts content that can radicalize or harm minors and that it falls afoul of Russia's laws on what minors can access online. We can debate how much of that is about safety versus politics, but that's the framework they're using.

So... any chance the ban gets lifted?

Short answer: do not hold your breath. The momentum (and the politics) point one way right now.

• The state has very broad authority to block platforms it deems harmful to minors, and it uses that power often. Walking back a fresh ban would be unusual.
• Roblox is also dealing with a lawsuit in the U.S., its home market, which does not help its optics in Moscow at this exact moment.
• The ban is barely a few weeks old. Reversing course this fast would look like whiplash for regulators.

That said, 63,000 kids writing in is a rare kind of pressure. At minimum, expect the topic to surface during the December 19 press conference and call-in marathon. Whether that translates into any actual policy shift is another question entirely.

Bottom line: Russia's Roblox blackout is very much in effect, the protests are loud (and young), and the next few days will tell us if the Kremlin even wants to entertain the idea of loosening up. If I had to bet, the ban stays put for now.