“This action also seeks to hold Roblox accountable for failing to warn Iowa parents of the ongoing sexual exploitation of children on their platform and for reckless disregard for safety that has proximately resulted in the tragic sexual exploitation of Iowa’s minor children,” it said.
Roblox, launched in 2004 and initially created for children, is an online gaming platform that allows users to engage in interactive gameplay in an open universe. Users can create Lego-like avatars to play various games called “experiences” while communicating and chatting with other user-avatars, the lawsuit said.
The platform has more than 80 million daily users, and up to two-thirds of American children ages 9 to 12 estimated to have Roblox accounts, it said.
In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said: “This lawsuit contains patently false claims about our platform. Roblox is built with safety at its core. We have advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications. Users cannot send or receive images via chat, eliminating one of the most prevalent opportunities for misuse seen elsewhere online.”
The complaint termed Roblox the “perfect environment for child predators, pornographers, scammers, fraudsters, online sex rings, and inappropriate content” because anyone can easily sign up, irrespective of age, and navigate the platform in complete anonymity. Children may end up chatting with avatars that are actually controlled by adults, according to the lawsuit.
There are more than 6.4 million “experiences” within the Roblox ecosystem.
“Thousands of them are highly inappropriate and sexual,” the lawsuit says.
The company claims that it conducts “robust content review,” but such assertions are “false and misleading,” given the large volume of inappropriate content on the platform, according to the lawsuit.
“Some experiences are at strip clubs, others are at ‘Epstein’s Island,’ where simulated underage sexual activity takes place. There are also hundreds of experiences just about Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, who was recently convicted of trafficking and prostitution. ... These are just a few of the thousands of examples,” the lawsuit said.
“The inappropriate sexual activity facilitated by Roblox is not merely virtual. Child predators have found numerous ways to use Roblox to obtain and share real child pornography, to groom and extort young children with online currency, and ultimately meet them in person to physically abuse them.
“Dozens of FBI investigations, criminal convictions, and private lawsuits detail the ways in which Roblox has facilitated real child abuse and pornography.”
Kaufman said Roblox is rolling out new safety measures that would further limit users’ chatting access, adding that Roblox takes “swift action” against those who breach safety protocols.
Abduction, Sextortion of Children
The lawsuit cited the example of a Tennessee man who, earlier this year, was charged with abducting a teen girl from Iowa whom he met on Roblox. He allegedly took the girl back to Tennessee and sexually assaulted her several times.“This tragic example is indicative of a pattern of grooming and predatory behavior on Roblox, of which Roblox has long been aware,” the complaint said.
Predators often approach children on Roblox while playing games, then chat with them and eventually move to grooming and abusing them online or in person. These people also lure children with the promise of giving “Robux,” the in-game currency in Roblox.
“Because of the social and economic nature of Roblox, the game and its currency are highly addictive for children. Kids often say they will do ‘anything for Robux,’” the lawsuit said.
Once children send inappropriate content in exchange for Robux, they may be subject to sextortion: A predator may threaten the child for more content or for an in-person meeting.
The group has “frequently used Roblox to facilitate its heinous and unlawful activities,” according to the complaint.
“Only within the last year, after its legal troubles began to mount, has Roblox started to implement policy changes. But those changes are far too little and far too late,” the lawsuit said.
“Defendant’s deliberate failure to implement effective safety measures to protect child users from well-documented predatory threats, along with its ongoing failure to warn parents and children of the foreseeable dangers posed by its platform, has caused the widespread sexual exploitation of minors and inflicted severe, lasting harm upon the children of Iowa.”
Company Policies
On Nov. 18, Roblox announced it would implement facial age checks for users to access chat functions, claiming that it is the first online gaming platform to require such verification. Images and videos captured for facial age estimation will be deleted immediately after processing, it said.Age checks will also allow the company to implement its age-based chat protocol, which limits chats between minors and adults, according to Roblox. Once age checks are completed, users will be assigned to one of the following groups: under 9, 9 to 12, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, 18 to 20, and 21-plus.
“Users will be able to chat with those in their own age group and similar age groups, as appropriate,” the company stated.
For instance, a 12-year-old child can chat with users aged 15 or younger, and users aged 16 or older are prohibited from initiating or engaging in chats with that child.
NCMEC is the designated reporting entity for public and electronic service providers with regard to instances of suspected child exploitation.
Roblox said it proactively reports potentially harmful content to NCMEC and that it submitted 24,522 reports to the organization last year.
The incident occurred around February. A 27-year-old man allegedly posed as a child on Roblox, offering friendship. Two days later, the predator shifted communication to Discord, using the platform to build trust.
In April, the man manipulated the girl into revealing her home address under the pretense of checking the distance between them, according to the lawsuit. He then drove to her home, kidnapped the girl, and held her against her will for an extended time.
State Lawsuits
In addition to Iowa, multiple other states have filed lawsuits against Roblox. In October, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman sued Roblox, accusing the company of failing to implement necessary child safety controls.“Roblox must do more to protect kids from sick and twisted freaks hiding behind a screen. Any corporation that enables child abuse will face the full and unrelenting force of the law,” Paxton said at the time.
