Schlep Lawyers Up And Roblox Suddenly Cares About Child Safety
- Roblox hides Restricted content from under-18s and adds ID checks, but critics say it’s not enough.
- Players slam Roblox for weak moderation and punishing whistleblowers.
- Schlep teams with Chris Hansen and lawyers to sue Roblox.
The Roblox child safety saga continues this week, as the company suddenly acts on its own policies and implements proper ID verification. Meanwhile, Schlep has been busy working on a documentary with Chris Hansen, and getting involved with law firms.
Roblox has come under fire multiple times over the years for its lax child safety protocols, despite claiming otherwise in its various press releases. As a platform primarily targeted at kids, it makes no real effort to ensure their protection (anyone can sign up with having to prove their age, for starters) but the company has recently acknowledged a change in this regard.
“Starting today, users under the age of 18 will no longer see search results or recommendations for experiences with ‘Restricted’ content maturity labels,” Matt Kaufman, Chief Security Officer, posted on the official dev forum on Aug. 29 (under his username of RbxRocketMan). “This change will decrease the visibility of content that may not be age-appropriate for younger audiences.”
“Today, Roblox users can verify their age for (Restricted) content access with a government issued ID.”
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Hiding in Plain Sight
Whether this is a step in the right direction or the equivalent of sweeping dirt under the rug remains to be seen. By hiding Restricted content, it means that kids can’t search for and view it, but it doesn’t stop potential predators from accessing content marked as all-ages, N/A, Mild or Moderate (literally any and all other experiences that aren’t Restricted), since ID verification still isn’t required for anything else other than payments.
Although Kaufman reminded users that “our Community Standards prohibit sexual content everywhere on the platform, including implied, suggestive, or direct sexual content in behaviors, interactions, or settings,” many devs have commented on this news with a mixture of relief and annoyance.
“Is this change to try and save face after he-who-cannot-be-named-without-being-terminated got a cease and desist and it made news across the internet?” asked CraX_573, a programmer.
Game designer, clxzed, said, “I fully understand that Roblox THINKS that their community standards are being applied, but they aren’t. I love improvements to moderation, but you need to listen to your community when they actually do the work of finding NSFW content instead of trusting your broken systems and banning those vigilantes. Also, I agree with some replies below mine, it should’ve been done sooner.”
Another programmer, yourlocalbuddy, summed up what a lot of other users said: “The steps you and the Roblox team have to do is so easy but you’re just not doing them for some reason: ban ALL inappropriate games (such as bathroom games), unban and work with Schlep, give him proper moderation tools, hire more human moderators OR improve the AI moderation (people are abusing the fact that you can reset someone’s avatar even if it’s not inappropriate).”
Lawyers Everywhere
This new Roblox update marks just the latest attempt by the company to counter recent pushback from the public, including Louisiana’s Attorney General, and more recently, Chris Hansen. The latter public figure has not been without his own controversy, as an upcoming To Catch a Predator documentary examines, but his experience with catching sexual predators undoubtedly makes Hansen an ideal ally for Schlep.
Schlep is a 22-year-old YouTuber and dedicated part of the Roblox community, who has caught six sexual predators on the game platform in the last year. However, Roblox sent a cease-and-desist letter and banned him, rather than take appropriate action against the alleged pedophiles. The company branded Schlep a “vigilante,” which is one of the reasons the YouTuber is now taking legal action against Roblox.
Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley, PLLC (SGGH) and Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, PLLC are representing Schlep. SGGH and Milberg represent over 400 alleged victims of abuse on platforms like Roblox and Discord.
SGGH has won hundreds of millions of dollars from sexual abuse cases; Milberg has brought forth successful cybersecurity-related claims against the likes of Snap Inc. (Snapchat), Walmart, Bose, CVS, and Facebook.
Schlep has also partnered with Law By Mike, aka Mike Mandell, who is known for breaking down important legal information in lighthearted and straightforward videos. Mandell is an LA-based lawyer with over 12 years experience, and he recently highlighted the ways big corporations are usually allowed by courts to enforce their own rules – except in this case, Schlep can fight back against Roblox singling him out over the actual predators on the game platform.
Schlep most recently featured on Louisiana’s KPLC 7 News, alongside AG Liz Murrill, on Aug. 28, in a report on the recent Roblox controversy.
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