YouTuber Catches Sex Offenders on Roblox, Gets Banned
Schlep, a 22-year-old Texan YouTuber, has spent the last year using Roblox to catch sexual predators, and said on social media that he’s managed to get six arrested so far. However, Roblox has recently issued him with a cease-and-desist notice, citing multiple platform rules Schlep broke whilst running his non-sanctioned sting operations.
In his most recent video, uploaded on Aug. 9, Schlep talks about the current issues with Roblox coming after him for catching predators, and reveals that he was groomed on Roblox as a kid, by a popular developer.
“He manipulated me. He used power dynamics over me and frequently exposed me to gore and Not Safe For Work material, and loads of other stuff that a kid should never see,” he said. “It was so bad that I actually made an attempt. While I was in hospital, my mom contacted Roblox. They brushed her off. That predator went on to groom more victims before Roblox finally banned him years later.”
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Previous Grooming
Schlep has said that he stayed on Roblox because he loves the platform so much, and it’s why he eventually ended up actively going after potential predators. His channel has been on the go since November 2021, and while he’s covered multiple scams and unsavory behavior like gambling and animal cruelty in Roblox, it’s only really in the last 18 months that a good chunk of content revolves around predators.
On Jan. 28, 2024, he posted a video entitled “i got groomed on roblox…” in which Schlep reveals that he, along with another YouTuber, caught a suspected sexual predator in Roblox, in November 2023, by posing as a 13 year old girl.
“I was groomed by a pedophile within the community, I’m spreading awareness to what’s going on,” Schlep posted on X on Aug. 13. “Kids don’t deserve to ever feel that way. I wanna stop it and educate. I do a lot of stuff that never makes it to the public eye.”
What We’re Dealing With Here is a Failure to Communicate
Schlep’s videos are slickly produced and there’s an element of sensationalism to some with, for example, a Roblox version of Dateline’s Chris Hansen appearing to confront predators. But, he is always clear that “all subjects mentioned in this video are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law,” as well as posting a disclaimer that viewers should not attempt to copy what they see.
Schlep has also made it clear that he routinely tries to contact Roblox to report his findings before he shares it with law enforcement, but never receives any concrete response to his reports from the company. Schlep has also said that he is willing to work with Roblox to catch predators, but instead, the company has hit him with a cease-and-desist letter.
“We write on behalf of Roblox Corporation,” it reads. “This letter serves as a formal cease and desist notice regarding your unauthorized and harmful activities on the Roblox platform. Your actions are a violation of Roblox policies and directly undermine Roblox’s safety efforts and, critically, are exposing our users to increased risk.”
Convoluted Safety Protocols
Roblox do have a point; the company has established protocols in place to report any kind of unlawful and unsavory behavior. It’s also possible that Schlep’s activities have, without his realizing, interfered with ongoing investigations.
Roblox posted news on Aug. 8 detailing how it partners with law enforcement agencies; this news followed an update in July related to its built-in AI moderation tools. As an idea of the scope of content Roblox has to contend with, this latter article said:
“From February to December, 2024, users uploaded approximately 1 trillion pieces of content. As little as 0.01% of those billions of those text chats, audio, voice, and images were detected as violating any of our policies. And almost all content that violated our policies was automatically prescreened and removed before users ever saw it.”
However, despite Roblox’s letter to Schlep also highlighting a “sophisticated and dedicated team of safety professionals (and) advanced moderation systems,” it clearly has gaps in its net; a cursory glance at the platform shows a wide variety of content not suitable for children that is widely available to access.
Eneba contacted Schlep and Roblox for comments, but neither responded by the time of publication.
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