An e-safety training company has warned parents to check their children's accounts for a game after safety concerns were raised.

Roblox, an online platform that allows users to design their own games and play a wide variety of different types of games, is a popular game for those aged between five and ten.

However, Essex-based company EST E Safety Training is warning parents about the potential risks posed by the game.

In a post on its Facebook page, the company wrote: "We were talking to a very large group of year 1 students and we were shocked when over half of them said they were playing ROBLOX. When we spoke to Year 2 at least 70 percent of them were playing the game.

"Most of these children then disclosed that they had online friends in ROBLOX that their parents didn’t know about.

"It got worse when many of the children stated they had received many in game messages from ‘strangers’ and that they hadn’t told their parents. All of the children then stated that they had seen ‘naked’ characters walking around the game and that the characters were doing very adult things.

"The inappropriate content has been disclosed to us thousands of times by young children but we were previously unaware that the children were being sent numerous messages.

"When talking to Year 3 students they suggested that a lot of the messages are inappropriate. In all cases the children aren’t telling their parents.

"The company added that children were talking to strangers via headsets."

It encouraged parents to check their children's account for the friends they have on the game and to also check the message inbox on the game for inappropriate messages.

Echo:

Roblox has said the safety of its community is its "top priority".

It encouraged parents to make sure those under 13 who were using the site, where using the under 13 version, which has heightened safety protocols.

A spokesman added that the chat filtering on the game was "best-of-breed, third-party software system created specifically to find offensive language and flag it".

A spokesman added: "All of this is backed up by a moderator network that uses our in-house team to review every image, audio, and video file that is uploaded to our site or into any of our games.  If users or their parents are witnessing any bad behavior in the game, we urge them to flag the ‘abuse report’ function in the game so that these participants can be handled by the Roblox team.

"Together we want to work with parents and the community to stay vigilant over today’s online landscape and continue to build best practices to avoid negative situations. We want to make sure that all users are aware of the potential challenges and navigate them through it.

"This is a priority for us. We want all users to be safe on Roblox, and we will continue to invest in the safety of the game so it is a positive, productive, fun and protected space for our community.  We would like to hear from parents if they have questions or suggestions.  They can email us at info@roblox.com."