Apps for a16z speedrun have officially opened + We spoke with world-leading experts on building a kid-friendly internet, including Roblox's Dina Lamdany.
The deadline to apply is May 11, 2025. Early apps get reviewed sooner, so don’t delay!
What’s it like being an a16z speedrun founder, you ask? Check out this video from our most recent Demo Day to see for yourself 👇
How do we make the internet safer for our kids?
It’s a question that has troubled parents for decades. And in the past few years there’s been a concerted push from both builders and regulators to empower parents with tools to keep kids safe. With easily bypassed, old-school “age gates” no longer cutting it, there is more demand than ever for cutting-edge technological solutions to the twin problems of online kid safety and parental empowerment.
So what does good look like in 2025 for teams working to make the internet more kid-friendly?
We decided to ask three leaders in the space, including Roblox’s product lead for family experience Dina Lamdany, Coverstar cofounder and CEO Ryan So, and journalist Patrick Klepek (editor of the excellent gaming-for-parents newsletter Crossplay).
Roblox Grows Up
Nearly 20 years after its launch, Roblox has more kids playing than ever. And with over 85 million daily active users, Roblox’s Dina Lamdany says, “We have a responsibility to make sure we’re continually investing to make Roblox one of the safest platforms on the internet.”
At Roblox, Lamdany leads product for the team that builds parental controls, privacy settings, and other family experience features. In a conversation with speedrun this week, she pointed out that because Roblox has always been open to kids, the platform has tended to feature stricter default content policies than others.
For example, while most platforms ban explicitly sexual content, Roblox tries to “take it a step further,” Lamdany says. “We don't even allow content with romantic or flirtatious gestures in a romantic context.”
By default, Roblox uses advanced filters throughout the app to catch and prevent distribution of even content mild enough for Saturday morning cartoons. “We don’t allow depictions of drunkenness,” Lamdany points out (with exceptions for experiences that require ID verification for players 17 and older).
And these filters have been advancing over time, including with the announcement this week that the company is updating its open source AI voice safety model to support seven new languages in addition to English.
Lamdany estimates that Roblox has shipped “over 30” safety features in the past year. One major update came last November, which added the ability for parents to link their own account directly to their kids’ accounts and manage safety features like content maturity limits, chat restrictions, and screentime monitoring.
This update reflected one of the most visible shifts in approaches to kid safety online across not only gaming platforms like Roblox, but any entertainment app accessible by kids: bringing in parents as intermediaries between platforms and children. In the case of Roblox, the platform asks parents to verify themselves using an ID or a credit card.
This approach, Lamdany says, isn’t just more convenient for parents: “It’s also in line with where the regulatory landscape is moving, because we have verified adults as these parents.”
A Parent’s Guide to Gaming
As a parent today, managing safety settings can be a messy and confusing process.
Patrick Klepek, a longtime journalist who writes the parenting-meets-gaming newsletter Crossplay, says that lack of standardization is one part of the problem. “Every single device has different parental controls,” Klepek says. “They use different words to describe the same thing, or controls that sound the same actually do slightly different things.”
Even worse, many devices now have multiple layers of settings to manage. “You set it up on your Xbox, but that doesn't mean you set it up in Fortnite. Fortnite has different parental controls than Xbox does. So some of the stuff on the Xbox level is going to impact what happens in Fortnite, but if there are Fortnite-specific things, then you have to go into Fortnite.”
“It's a real challenge,” Klepek says. “I understand why a lot of parents sort of throw up their hands.”
Setting up parental controls across different devices is so complex that Klepek has begun writing and publishing step-by-step parental control guides for platforms like PlayStation and Xbox.
Klepek says that while in recent years these platforms have gotten much better at giving parents the tools they need to keep their kids safe (“Microsoft and PlayStation are more or less at parity,” he says), other platforms have fallen behind. “Nintendo is great at doing family-friendly game design, but not as great at building family-friendly parental controls or accessibility features,” he says.
Klepek’s kids are big fans of Roblox, and after some initial hesitation, he has warmed to the platform as well. Partly, his opinion has changed as Roblox has continued adding parent-friendly features.
“Some of this stuff should have been there sooner,” Klepek says. “But there is a lot more there now, like the ability to see who is on your child's friends list.”
But there are other features Klepek says he’d like to see added. “Give me the option to remove friends,” he says. (Editor’s Note: Roblox announced the addition of this feature earlier today.) And though Roblox does allow users to limit spending—even to zero—and notifies parents about any purchases made in app, Klepek advocates for more power for parents: “If your kid is under a certain age, you should also be able to turn off the ability to even surface in-app purchases that my children then have to cancel,” he says.
“More control over the surfacing of purchasing would be something I’d really appreciate.”
Sidebar: Coverstar’s Ryan So on Building a “Safe TikTok Alternative”
Coverstar’s Ryan So pitching at a16z speedrun Demo Day last month.
a16z speedrun alum Ryan So’s app Coverstar is a quickly-growing alternative to TikTok, with over 200,000 daily active users, gained almost entirely through word-of-mouth growth. “Kids tell their friends at school, and parents tell their other parent friends about Coverstar,” So says.
The core pitch for the app is that it’s a heavily-moderated, kid-friendly alternative to other social media, with AI-powered content filtering systems and no private messaging between users by default.
“Kids are going to find a way to get on social media,” So says. “It’s just not realistic to expect them not to. So we want to create a safe and positive ecosystem for them.”
Particularly for Gen Alpha kids (those aged 15 and under), these are kids that in many cases have been online their whole lives.
“They've been on YouTube Kids since they were toddlers,” So says, “and once they reach the age of five or six, they don't want to be in YouTube Kids anymore. They want to be on real YouTube or TikTok. So of course, a kid lies about their age, gets on TikTok, and if they’re under 13 they end up getting banned.”
So argues that, particularly with the help of proactive policies, strong parental controls, and AI-powered filtering tools, it’s possible to create kid-safe environments online—a “digital Disneyland.”
The end goal for Coverstar: “We want to build something cool for kids, and to be able to guarantee parents that their kids won’t see anything explicit.”
But while platforms can do more to empower parents, Klepek says, there is also a burden of responsibility on parents to “experience what your kid is experiencing.”
There is always a balance to be struck between giving kids space to play and taking steps to protect them, he argues, but navigating that balance is much easier when you fully understand the games and apps your kids are experiencing.
“If they're using Snapchat, you’ve gotta use Snapchat too so you can understand it,” Klepek says. “It's just worth sitting down, installing it, and setting up an account yourself, so you can have an informed conversation about it with your kids.”
And besides: “It's so much easier to say ‘no’ to something when you know exactly what you're saying ‘no’ to.”
Empowering Parents With Tools and Understanding
Klepek’s advice dovetails with what Roblox’s Dina Lamdany says she often tells parents. “One of the biggest things we tell parents is that they should get in the game with their kids, and they should understand what's going on,” she says.
Lamdany’s argument is that parental management tools only work if parents understand how they’ll function in practice. By playing games with your kids, you’ll better understand the ways they’re interacting with others, which then allows you to make more informed choices using the controls available.
“We have a feature today where you can see your kids' friends on Roblox. We really want parents to be asking their kids regularly: Who is this person? What do you do with this person? What kind of games do you like to play? It's the same way when you drop your kid off for a playdate after school. You ask questions before you do that."
“It's our responsibility to build tools to allow parents to do that in an informed way, and we don’t think we’re done yet with that, at all, if we want to become the safest platform for kids and families,” Lamdany says. “We think this is a 'forever’ task.”
💡 More Big Ideas
🔁 With apps for a16z speedrun’s 5th batch officially open, General Partner Andrew Chen took to social to take questions and reflect on how the program has grown.
🎨 On LinkedIn and X, General Partner Jonathan Lai published the first in our new series of “Request For Startups” videos. His theme: AI agents for creative storytelling.
💼 There are currently over 400 open jobs listings across our portfolios. Join our talent network for more opportunities. If we see a fit for you, we'll intro you to relevant founders in the portfolio.
That’s it for this week. If you haven’t already subscribed, it’s time to lock in.
Get the a16z speedrun newsletter weekly 👇
You are receiving this newsletter since you opted in earlier; if you would like to opt out of future newsletters, you can unsubscribe immediately.
This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. This newsletter may link to other websites and certain information contained herein has been obtained from third-party sources. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.
References to any companies, securities, or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Any references to companies are for illustrative purposes only; please see a16z.com/investments. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund which should be read in their entirety.) Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Content in this newsletter speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for additional important details.
Great to learn that Roblox is making these changes. I have twin 8 year old sons who play often and this news makes me feel better about that.