Roblox Continues to Dig Its Own Grave
- Louisiana AG sues Roblox for failing to protect kids from predators.
- Roblox issues broad safety claims, criticized as tone-deaf.
- More cases of grooming raise concerns over weak safeguards.
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Roblox Has Been in The News
And for all the wrong reasons this last month, on account of first banning the user, Schlep, who caught multiple predators on the platform, rather than the predators themselves. This was followed by a corporate YouTube video that doubled-down on the company’s lack of self-awareness, and then a lawsuit was lodged by the Louisiana Attorney General.
The AG, Liz Murrill, appeared on NEWSMAX show National Report on Aug. 21, where she spoke at length about her lawsuit, as well as her responses to Roblox’s subsequent comments and associated issues, including the baseline failure of the platform to protect children.
“What’s clear about this program is that it’s dangerous by design,” Murrill said. “They have deliberately prevented some of the tools to be used that would prevent sex predators from having free reign use of the program to run down and identify children to groom. And they’ve done that in order to increase their user engagement, so absolutely putting profit over the protection of our children.”
A Tone Deaf Defence
Murrill’s lawsuit goes into detail regarding her concerns, on behalf of the state of Louisiana, about how Roblox has well over 80 million daily active users, with half under the age of 16, and how there are multiple examples of sexual predators using it.
Roblox has of course refuted such claims, in a statement that read in part: “Every day, tens of millions of all ages have safe and positive experiences on Roblox, abiding by the company’s Community Standards. Roblox takes any content or behavior on the platform that doesn’t abide by its standards extremely seriously.”
Murrill was quick to comment on the corporate-speak of the statement, highlighting the lack of awareness and continued refusal by Roblox to admit any wrongdoing.
“The fact that they ignore the thousands and millions of children that are being exposed to sex predators on their app by saying that millions of them have positive experiences on the app is tone deaf,” she said.
“And I’ve seen some attempt to say that the actual exploitation happens on other apps, but this is the one where they (predators) meet them (children) and groom them and move them.”
More Evidence Every Day
The lawsuit highlights examples where law enforcement encountered adults using Roblox to contact children, and both before and after the recent Schlep news Roblox has been haunted by reports of child abuse and endangerment.
Murrill’s lawsuit focuses on Louisiana children, as this is her state, but people in other states have taken it as a call to arms. Just yesterday, Aug. 21, a North Carolina mother and her daughter filed a complaint via Dolman Law Group against Roblox. In it, the mother said her daughter had been groomed on the platform at the age of 10 by an adult user, which resulted in the young girl sending sexually explicit images in exchange for Robux (in-game currency).
“This case against Roblox is a terrifying reminder of the world we live in, where capitalist greed far outweighs humanity,” said Matthew Dolman, Principal of Dolman Law Group. “There have never been sufficient safety measures and protocols in place, and children are suffering unimaginably. With Robux, Roblox gives evil individuals another literal bargaining chip to play out their unthinkable fantasies with impressionable children.”
In April this year a 27 year old California man, Matthew Naval, was arrested by police after it was discovered he’d groomed, then kidnapped, a 10 year old girl. They’d been communicating via Roblox, and then on Discord.
Keep Digging, Roblox
Throughout this all, Roblox has continued to release statements, news, and videos, that don’t directly address any of these issues by name (for example, Schlep is simply referred to as a “vigilante.”). Instead, the company continues to keep digging its own grave by referencing the safety policies it has, and how it’s some other site’s fault if bad actors slip through the cracks or take a conversation elsewhere.
What Roblox has shown itself at being very good at doing, is ignoring the problems under its nose. Murrill called the company out on its past failures, too:
“From 2009 to 2016, Roblox did not make a single report to the National Center for Missing And Exploited Children about potential sex predators operating on their app. They did that so they could increase their user engagement, so they have very deliberately managed to avoid implementing these tools.”
When asked by the National Report anchors if there’s been any possibility of collaborating with Roblox, Murrill said, “I’m not sure what a conversation with them before the lawsuit would have accomplished. They’ve had the opportunity to be responsible and do the right thing all along.”
Roblox has reportedly already been banned in China, Turkey, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan, and Qatar.
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