Louisiana AG Files Suit Against Roblox For Facilitating Child Sex Abuse and Exploitation

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has filed a lawsuit against Roblox, an online video game platform that caters primarily to children, alleging “the facilitation and distribution of child sexual abuse material (“CSAM”) and sexual exploitation of Louisiana’s minor children.” This comes shortly after the company has defended its actions of removing “vigilante” users who have exposed predatory behavior and child exploitation. Roblox has recently announced the rollout of a dating feature for ID-verified 21+ year olds, allowing them to go on virtual dates that may lead to real-world meetups.

The lawsuit says that despite Roblox’s marketing to children and slogan, “#1 gaming site for kids and teens,” the company has failed to “implement basic safety controls to protect child users.”

The lawsuit states, “Defendant [Roblox] claims that it provides ‘new gateways into learning’-from ‘chemistry to physics to robotics and more, Roblox experiences bring concepts to life in ways that immerse learners and motivate exploration, play, and deep thinking.’ These offerings, according to Defendant, include ‘high-quality, standards-aligned, immersive educational experiences designed by curriculum experts.’”

Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that Roblox fails to provide informed consent for children and their parents by adequately warning of the dangers. Instead, the company continually assures parents and children that the platform is safe for users of all ages. 56% of all Roblox users are under the age of 16, with 40% being under the age of 13. Civic Science tracking shows 65% of Generation Alpha (under 14) play Roblox, and 48% of Gen Z (13-24). The average child user on Roblox spent two hours and 10 minutes each day on the platform.

“Through willful disregard and deceptive practices, Defendant has permitted and perpetuated an online environment in which child predators thrive, directly contributing to the widespread victimization of minor children in Louisiana,” the lawsuit states.

The State of Louisiana suit alleges that Roblox has not enacted proper age verification protections. Roblox does not have any age verification metrics in place for new account holders, so it relies upon self-reported birth dates and does not verify parental approval. It does not allow direct messaging of older adults to younger children, but there is no barrier preventing an adult from creating a child account. Also, adult users can message and interact with children on the platform within different types of “experiences.” Before November 2024, there was no barrier whatsoever preventing adults from friending children and communicating directly on the platform.

The complaint also explains how the platform’s currency, “Robux,” can be purchased with real-world dollars to buy items for their avatars, and they will try to purchase items to “keep up with their peers.” The complaint asserts that children “become obsessed” with obtaining Robux to the point of telling everyone, including strangers, that they will “do anything for Robux.”

Roblox submitted 24,522 reports of child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2024, which is only 0.12% of the 20.3 million reports that were submitted to Roblox by users. Roblux reported 13,000 cases of child exploitation to NCMEC in 2023, a significant increase from the 3,000 it reported in 2022.

The lawsuit claims the platform fails to adequately regulate access to age-restricted experiences adequately, potentially allowing minors to view content that should be restricted or banned. An example of an “experience” that was not age-restricted is “Escape to Epstein Island,” which is a reference to an island where child sexual exploitation took place. The lawsuit references a report that found 900 accounts were referencing Jeffrey Epstein and over 60 experiences referencing P. Diddy, who has also been accused of child sexual exploitation and convicted for transportation to engage in prostitution.

The complaint asserts that Roblox provides an environment that makes children more susceptible to being groomed by adults by desensitizing them to harassment and sexual exploitation, who are exposed to this type of content while still learning about social norms and morality.

The lawsuit further alleges that Roblox is “knowingly and/or recklessly hosting, enabling, and facilitating the creation and distribution of pornographic content,” including groups on the platform that engage in the trading of child pornographic material and users soliciting sexual acts from minors. The lawsuit states that one of these groups has as many as 103,000 members and alleges that Roblox failed to replace age restrictions on these groups or remove them entirely from the platform.

AG Murrill further alleges deceptive public relations for getting a favorable review from the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) CEO regarding new child safety features. Roblox’s Vice President of Civility and Partnerships, Tami Bhaumik, serves as FOSI’s chair, which is a “calculated relationship” according to the lawsuit.

Roblox issued a statement “to address erroneous claims and misconceptions” about the platform rather than to comment specifically on the lawsuit accusations. In the statement, Roblox asserts that child safety is important and the company dedicates “substantial resources” to protecting children on the platform and that “safety is one of the most important challenges in the industry today.”

Roblox also issued a statement in response to its removal of “vigilante” users who have exposed predatory behavior on the platform, at times leading to arrests. In the statement, the company compares the vigilantes to the predators they were exposing, because they impersonate young children and “actively sought to interact with adult users.”

Roblox CEO David Baszucki said “I think of Roblox as a platform to help loneliness,” and outlined his vision of the company’s forthcoming matchmaking service for adults. The latest revelations of child exploitation and lack of age verification have led to significant criticism of the proposed matchmaking feature as a new potential way for predators to exploit young minors on the platform.

Journalist Chris Hansen, famous for sting operations of child predators on Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator, announced that he and his team have been investigating Roblox and the safety concerns related to predators on the platform. Roblox stock