Tennessee Becomes Latest State To Sue Roblox

Photo: Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti ; via Wikipedia.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has filed a civil enforcement action against Roblox, alleging the gaming platform systematically failed to protect children despite repeatedly assuring parents that safety was its top priority, Fox 54 reported yesterday.

According to the state, Roblox operates one of the largest youth-focused online ecosystems in the world while allowing children and adults to interact in largely unsupervised digital spaces. State officials say this design exposes minors to predatory behavior, sexualized content, and inappropriate communications at a scale that far outpaces the platform’s safeguards.

Roblox’s growth has been rapid. By late 2025, the platform averaged more than 151 million daily active users, with the majority under the age of 16 and a significant portion under 13. Despite this, Tennessee alleges that account creation requires little more than entering a birthdate, enabling children to access adult spaces and allowing adults to pose as minors with minimal resistance.

State investigators point to longstanding concerns over sexually explicit user-generated environments, insufficient moderation resources, and features that can be exploited for grooming, including in-platform virtual currency. The complaint asserts that these issues were not isolated oversights but known risks that persisted even as the company expanded its user base and revenue.

The state also highlights internal and public statements by Roblox leadership emphasizing safety while allegedly delaying or limiting meaningful reforms. While Roblox introduced new parental tools and communication restrictions in late 2024, Tennessee contends those changes arrived only after years of warnings and growing public scrutiny.

Tennessee’s action places Roblox among a growing list of tech platforms facing heightened pressure from state officials to align child-safety claims with real-world protections, particularly when young users form the core of their business model.

Tennessee is part of a widening wave of state legal actions targeting Roblox over child safety failures. Texas and Louisiana have filed suit in 2025, citing similar allegations of inadequate protections and deceptive safety claims. Iowa brought its own case just last week, demanding stronger age verification, parental controls, and restitution for harm to minors. Other states have taken formal or exploratory steps: Florida and Arkansas have opened investigations into whether Roblox misrepresented its safety measures, and California regulators have examined safety reporting practices following rising reports of predation. Several additional states’ attorneys general have publicly signaled scrutiny of Roblox’s child protection practices, a trend that underscores growing concerns across the country about how major gaming platforms safeguard young users.

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