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A 20-year-old man from California has been arrested for allegedly soliciting a Florida child through the online gaming platform Roblox.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of Brandon Rodriguez-Silva, of San Jose, on November 7. He has been charged with transmitting material harmful to minors by electronic device and soliciting a child for unlawful sexual conduct using a computer service or device, Fox Business reported.
According to the sheriff’s office, Rodriguez-Silva first met the child on Roblox before encouraging them to move their conversations to the messaging app Discord. From there, the two began exchanging messages that turned increasingly explicit.
Investigators say Rodriguez-Silva told the child he was 18 and requested sexually suggestive photos. While no nude images were shared, law enforcement reported that the messages contained numerous explicit statements and exchanges.
The incident came to light when the child’s parent discovered the disturbing messages on their child’s device and immediately reported them to authorities.
“Fortunately, this parent acted as the sheriff in their home by reviewing their child’s messages and contacting law enforcement immediately after discovering a stranger was attempting to take advantage of their child,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said in a statement.
Deputies launched an investigation in June 2023 after responding to the family’s home in Palm Coast. Detectives say the case took more than two years to reach an arrest because of the cross-state nature of the investigation. Rodriguez-Silva is currently being held at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas, California, and is awaiting extradition to Florida.
Roblox, a platform popular among children and teens, allows users to create, share, and play games. Sheriff Staly emphasized that the case underscores the real dangers children face online.
“These online platforms provide predators an avenue to engage with unsuspecting children and groom them so exploitation can occur,” he said.
A Roblox spokesperson responded to the incident, stating the company was “deeply troubled” by the allegations and emphasized ongoing efforts to improve user safety. “We prohibit the sharing of images and videos in chat, use filters designed to block the exchange of personal information, and our trained teams and automated tools continuously monitor communications to detect and remove harmful content,” the statement said. Roblox also noted the introduction of more than 145 safety measures in 2025, including age estimation features for chat access.
The arrest of Brandon Rodriguez-Silva comes amid mounting national litigation against Roblox Corporation. Families across the United States have filed civil lawsuits accusing the company of failing to protect minors from online grooming, explicit content, and predatory behavior on its platform. Attorneys General in Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Kentucky have either filed lawsuits or launched investigations into Roblox’s child safety practices, signaling growing concern that the platform’s safeguards remain dangerously inadequate.
For more Roblox news coverage, click here. Included in our coverage is The Guide To Roblox Lawsuits.
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