What Robot Recess is
Robot Recess is a free website full of small games you play right in the browser, like the game sites of the early 2000s. The games are made by creators with help from AI tools. Players try new games and decide which ones are fun enough for the Arcade.
There are no ads, no purchases inside games, and no loot boxes or prizes to buy.
Playing without an account
Kids can play every game without an account, and we don’t ask them for a name, an email, or anything else about them. Without an account they can:
- Play any game, as much as they like.
- Tap a quick “Fun?” face after playing, which helps decide which games make the Arcade.
- Read the public chat, and report a game or a message that isn’t OK.
To count plays fairly, we use one cookie with a random ID and a scrambled network ID that changes every day. Game progress is saved on your device. The privacy policy lists exactly what we collect and why.
With an account (ages 13 and up)
An account lets someone chat, comment, review games, put their 3-letter initials on high-score boards, and publish games. Making an account needs only a username and password: no email, no real name, no photo. We ask for a birth month and year when someone signs up, and we don’t keep it.
Making games with Claude in the Workshop needs someone’s own Claude account, and Anthropic only offers those to adults. A teen can still join a Workshop as a teammate to chat and suggest ideas.
What kids can’t do here
- No private messages. Every chat is in the open, where moderators and reports can see it.
- No links to other websites in chat (only Robot Recess links work), and email addresses are taken out.
- No profile photos. A profile is just a username, 3 initials, badges and a short bio.
- Games can’t reach other websites, except a backend the game’s creator connected themselves (a Premium feature). A Supabase project is checked automatically and switched on right away, without an editor looking at it; any other backend needs an editor’s OK first. What a game sends to its creator’s backend (for example its own logins or scores) is up to that creator, and our editors don’t see it. Robot Recess itself never shows a game who is playing beyond 3 initials (and, for online rooms, a player ID made just for that game).
- No free-text chat in online rooms. Games that let friends play together online can only send numbers and short words between players, games playing with strangers are checked by an editor first, and every one of them has a Report button.
- Nothing to buy inside games.
How we keep it friendly
- Every game upload is checked automatically, and anything suspicious goes to an editor before players see it.
- Games run in a locked-down sandbox on a separate web address, so they can’t touch accounts or cookies.
- All-ages rules for games, chat and comments, written in our playground rules.
- Chat has a word filter, length limits and speed limits. New accounts post more slowly at first, and for their first 7 days an AI safety check can also review their messages and hide ones that aren’t OK for kids.
- Every message has a Report button. When 3 players report a message, it’s hidden until an editor looks. Moderators can hide messages and mute people.
- Each game’s team and our editors can turn on slow mode (one message every few seconds or minutes) and Players only (only people who actually played the game can post) whenever a chat gets busy.
- When 3 players report a game, it’s pulled for an editor to review.
- Workshop chats get the same protections.
Money
Playing is free, with no ads. The only thing for sale is Premium ($4 a month), a plan for game creators. Checkout asks buyers to confirm they’re 18 or older or that a parent or guardian said OK. It can be cancelled any time, and payments are handled by Stripe, so we never see card numbers.
Tips for families
- Want no chat at all? Chat sits in its own tab next to each game and never opens by itself. Press Hide chat in the chat’s title bar and chat stays hidden on that device, in every game, until someone presses Show chat. (It’s saved in the browser, so do it once on each device and browser your child uses.)
- Play a few games together, and talk about what makes a game fun.
- Remind kids never to share their real name, school, address, phone number or other accounts in chat.
- Show them the Report button, and that it’s always OK to tell a grown-up about something that felt wrong.
- Pick a username that isn’t a real name.
- On a shared computer, log out when you’re done.
- If your teen has an account, offer to keep their recovery codes somewhere safe.
If something’s wrong
Use the Report button on any game or message. You can also email hello@robotrecess.com; include a link to the game or chat if you can. If you think a child under 13 made an account, send us the username and we’ll delete it.