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The online gaming platform Roblox is facing legal and regulatory scrutiny both in the US and abroad for how it manages the safety of its youngest users.
Yesterday, NBC News reported that Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued criminal subpoenas to Roblox Corporation, describing the company as a “breeding ground for predators” that has failed to protect children from exploitation. The subpoenas give investigators authority to dig into evidence of grooming, predatory communications and user-to-user exploitation on the platform.
Roblox, which reports more than 380 million monthly users worldwide, has become the target of multiple lawsuits across the U.S. including claims brought by the Louisiana Attorney General and a Georgia family in DeKalb County, Fox 5 Atlanta reported today. That family alleges their 14-year-old son was groomed via Roblox’s chat function, then coaxed into explicit photo exchanges on Discord. They claim both companies failed to implement sufficient protections for minors and are seeking jury trials and significant damages.
Parents and government officials abroad are also sounding the alarm. In Iraq, Roblox was banned for exposing minors to “unmonitored interactions, exploitation and cyber-blackmail,” while in Israel, that country’s early childhood education body (OMEP) criticized the game for encouraging children to steal, cheat and extort peers. These international actions highlight the global dimension of the problem; they are not just isolated to U.S. courts.
Roblox maintains that it has implemented filtering technologies, restricted chat functions for users under 13, and is transitioning to mandatory age-estimation for its communications features. Yet critics argue these safeguards are too little, too late. They say the flurry of lawsuits, regulatory interest and media coverage reflect longstanding structural failures in how the company treats child safety.
What is Roblox and Who Runs It?
Roblox is an online platform where users create games, socialize through avatars and communicate via chat. Roblox Corporation, headquartered in San Mateo, CA operates the ecosystem. The company sells in-game currency, hosts user-generated content, and earns revenue through subscriptions and micro-transactions, often from minors.
How is Roblox dangerous to children?
Because Roblox prioritizes open communication and user-generated content, it inherently invites risk. Predators have allegedly used avatar chat, private messages and off-platform tools to contact children. Lawsuits claim the company knew about these risks yet failed to act decisively. Plaintiffs say the platform’s age filters are ineffective; chat functions bypass restrictions; users share images and links; and the company’s response to reports is negligently slow. Documentation suggests users have been groomed, coerced into sharing explicit material, and even physically harmed.
Roblox Lawsuits
As mentioned, a Georgia family filed suit after their 14-year-old son was allegedly groomed on Roblox, moved to Discord and exploited. The predator initiated contact with the child on Roblox, then persuaded the child to continue their conversations on Discord, a separate chat and voice-messaging app. Predators often do this to bypass Roblox’s stricter moderation and chat filters, since Discord allows private, less-monitored communication, including the exchange of images or videos.
In a separate suit filed in Iowa in July, a 13-year-old was allegedly groomed then kidnapped from her grandmother’s home, and ultimately trafficked across multiple states. The girl met a 37-year-old man who was pretending to be a teen on the platform. The lawsuit has been transferred to federal court and is currently on hold pending a class action lawsuit.
Already dozens of cases alleging similar patterns of grooming and exploitation have been filed. Consequently, Roblox currently faces multiple class actions, civil suits and regulatory investigations.
In addition to individual family lawsuits, Roblox is also the target of broader legal and regulatory action. The Louisiana and Florida Attorneys General have both taken aggressive steps against the company. Louisiana’s AG, Liz Murrill, filed suit in August, describing the platform as “the perfect place for pedophiles.” Florida, as mentioned, is launching a criminal investigation through subpoenas. In California, 18 Roblox-related claims have been consolidated into a coordinated proceeding involving video game addiction, while a separate class-action lawsuit (Garcia v. Roblox Corp.) accuses the company of illegally collecting and sharing children’s data without parental consent.
So far, Roblox has only settled one major case, a $10 million class-action settlement over in-game purchase disputes and deleted content, with most of the payment repaid as virtual cash to minors. However, no settlements have yet been reported in cases related to child exploitation or grooming. Most of those lawsuits remain pending in state and federal courts. Attorneys representing victims suggest many more filings are forthcoming as additional survivors come forward and as law firms continue investigating whether the company’s child-safety systems and moderation practices meet legal obligations.
What are Plaintiffs Claiming in Roblox Lawsuits?
Common allegations include:
- Failure to prevent grooming and exploitation.
- Inadequate safeguards and moderation despite known risks.
- Profit-driven design encouraging engagement of minors without sufficient protections.
- Using interfaces that make minors targets for predators.
What Should Parents Do If They Suspect Abuse?
- Take your child seriously if they mention inappropriate communication.
- Preserve chat logs, screenshots and usernames.
- Report to both the platform (Roblox or Discord) and local law enforcement.
- Involve a child-advocacy center.
- Limit unsupervised game time, turn off in-game messaging, and monitor your child’s online contacts regularly.
- Seek legal advice. Some states may allow lawsuits against platforms for failing to protect children.
Can I File A Lawsuit Against Roblox?
While there’s no state that explicitly bars lawsuits against Roblox (or similar platforms) for failing to protect children, legal protections and hurdles vary by state; some states make it significantly harder for such lawsuits to succeed.
Two major legal factors have bearing on lawsuits against platforms such as Roblox. First, the Communications Decency Act (CDA), a 1996 amendment to the original 1934 legislation, Section 230 of the Communications Act. Congress passed the CDA in order to protect children on the internet. The second factor involves variation in state laws. Even when Section 230 doesn’t apply (for example, when the claim is not based purely on content moderation), states differ significantly in how they treat claims of negligence or failure to protect children. Some states have more favorable laws for survivors; others impose higher burdens of proof or shorter statute of limitations.
So while lawsuits can and are being brought against Roblox and other platforms across multiple states, the likelihood of success depends heavily on which state court the case is filed in and how that state’s laws apply in conjunction with federal immunity protections.
Has Your Child Been Exploited By Roblox Or Another Gaming Platform?
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