Kentucky’s attorney general claimed Tuesday that the online gaming platform Roblox has become a “playground for predators” as he announced a lawsuit accusing the company of lax child safety measures.
The Kentucky suit, filed by his office Monday in a state court, is the latest action alleging that the wildly popular site isn’t doing enough to protect children on its gaming services.
To bolster safeguards for children and teenagers flocking to the site, the company needs to install effective age verifications and content filters, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said. Added parental notifications also are needed, he said.
Courtney Norris, a Kentucky mother of three who joined Coleman at a news conference, said she mistakenly viewed Roblox as a safe online gaming choice for her children.
“I came to realize, later than I would like to admit, that it actually is the ‘Wild West’ of the internet, targeted at children,” she said.
The company is facing a growing backlash. The Kentucky suit comes after Louisiana sued the company in August. A suit was filed in Iowa after a 13-year-old girl was allegedly introduced to an adult predator on the platform, then kidnapped and trafficked across multiple states and raped.
Roblox on Tuesday pushed back against the allegations.
“We have rigorous safety measures in place from advanced AI models to an expertly trained team of thousands moderating our platform 24/7 for inappropriate content,” the company said in a statement. “No system is perfect and our work on safety is never done. We are constantly innovating our safety systems, including adding 100 new safeguards, such as facial age estimation, this year alone.”
Roblox says it has 111 million daily active users. The company said in an email Tuesday that it implements strict safety defaults for its youngest users. It said the platform’s users under 13 cannot directly message others on Roblox, outside of games or experiences, and cannot directly message others during games or experiences unless the default setting is changed using parental controls.
The company said it has rigorous text chat filters to block inappropriate words and phrases, attempts to direct under-13 users off the platform and the sharing of personal information such as phone number or address. It does not allow user-to-user image sharing and prohibits sexual conversations, it said.
The Kentucky lawsuit gives a starkly different portrayal of the platform.
Despite assurances its site is safe, the company has failed to install basic safety controls, the suit said. Roblox also fails to inform its users and their parents about “dangers inherent” on the platform, it said.
Coleman, a Republican, said the site’s “cartoonish figures and experiences” appeal to children, but he warned that “underneath this cartoonish, innocent veneer is something sinister. The platform has become a playground for predators who seek to harm our children.”
The Kentucky suit alleges that children are exposed to “violent or sexual situations within the Roblox universe, with parents reporting children contacted by strangers using third-party chat apps that function as if they are part of the game.”
Norris said that like many parents, she considered it a safe choice for her children.
“I described it as a ‘fenced-in backyard’ for kids’ gaming,” she said Tuesday. “And that is the genius and the danger I found of Roblox — the illusion of safety it gives parents like me.”
“The reality is, Roblox makes it nearly impossible to police as a parent,” she added.
The suit claims that Roblox’s lax protections violate Kentucky’s Consumer Protection Act and asks a judge to order the company into compliance. The suit seeks penalties of up to $2,000 for each violation of the consumer protection law.
Coleman said his office is open to negotiating a settlement with Roblox.
“Our goal is not to shut a platform down,” Coleman said. “Our goal is for Roblox to be safe.”
Roblox said it shares the goal of keeping kids safe online, and said it would welcome discussions with Coleman’s office to “ensure they have a clear understanding of all Roblox is doing to keep users safe.”
—Bruce Schreiner, Associated Press