The Dutch cabinet is assessing online gaming platform Roblox to determine whether it is suitable for its young audience and safe to use.

The home affairs ministry confirmed the review is being carried out following questions from children’s news channel Jeugdjournaal.

Roblox, which is free, allows users to play games and explore a digital world. The platform has around 111 million users worldwide. However, in recent years it has made headlines after users – most of them children – encountered games featuring sex and violence.

Criminals have also used the platform to blackmail children into handing over money or performing sexual acts online.

Several court cases have been brought against the American company in the US. The state of Louisiana, for example, is suing Roblox for creating an environment where sexual predators “thrive, unite, hunt and victimise kids.”

Other cases have centred on children being groomed for sexual exploitation from a young age.

The ministry uses a standard assessment to check whether platforms are suitable for children and has previously investigated Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, without drawing any firm conclusions.

For Snapchat, for example, the report concludes that its profiling via ads, content personalisation and third-party data collection has a potential serious impact on children but does not say how likely this is to happen.

Roblox has introduced several safeguards, including a facial scan system to ensure only users aged 13 and over can access the chat function. However, those and other name and age checks have proved easy to bypass.

The company told Jeugdjournaal it has also introduced rules governing what people can say and create on the platform, and offers various options for blocking accounts. It also recommends that parents link their accounts to their children’s so they can monitor what they are doing online.