Roblox sued for failing to protect children

Warning: This text contains descriptions of virtual sexual acts with minors.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has filed a lawsuit in district court against the gaming platform Roblox. Roblox has failed to implement basic safety controls to protect its predominantly young user base from child molesters. According to the company's own data, 20% of Roblox's 82 million daily users are under the age of 9, with a further 20% aged between 9 and 12.

In a press release (currently only available at Archive.org), Murrill explains her move. As there is no lower age limit and no requirement for age verification or parental consent when registering, users can easily pretend to be younger or older than they actually are. This allows child molesters to pose as children and children to circumvent age restrictions.

It goes on to say: "Once registered, users have access to millions of games, including sports, role-playing, marine, fashion and comedy games". Other games that exist on the platform, including "Escape to Epstein Island", "Diddy Party" and "Public Bathroom Simulator Vibe", are not so harmless. These and other games are often filled with sexually explicit material and simulated sexual acts such as gang rape of children.

A recent report even revealed that a group of 3,334 members openly traded child pornography and solicited minors to engage in sexual acts, the prosecutor writes further.

Roblox: "Safe and positive environment"

Roblox has since responded to the indictment with a press statement in which the company outlines the measures it takes to protect its users. Roblox writes: "Our goal is to create one of the safest online environments for users. This goal is not only at the core of our founding values, but contrary to certain claims, it is also critical to our long-term vision and success. We recognize that there is still work to be done and we are committed to making Roblox a safe and positive environment for all users."

Warning letter against YouTuber

Shortly before the lawsuit against Roblox, the company also issued a warning to a well-known YouTuber with the pseudonym "Schlep". According to the 22-year-old man, he has been using the platform since he was a child. He has been documenting and reporting cases of suspected paedophilia on his YouTube channel with over 900,000 subscribers for 2024 years. As Schlep reports in a recent video, this has now earned him a cease-and-desist letter from Roblox and a permanent ban on his account there.

The YouTuber also states in his video that he pretended to be a minor on Roblox to engage potential offenders in explicit chats. He handed over the transcripts of these conversations to the relevant law enforcement authorities, which led to six arrests. As Roblox's head of security explains in a statement on the company's website, such actions would even reduce the security of the platform: the "bad actors" would then be active there for longer than if they were reported immediately. Although Roblox does not explicitly mention the case of Schlep in his general statement, the reference to allegedly "sensationalized social media content" is clear.

(jo)