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Child safety on Roblox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The safety of children on Roblox, a multiplayer game platform managed by the American company Roblox Corporation, has been the subject of much debate and controversy. Concerns include exposure to sexual content, sexual grooming, political extremism, and financial exploitation, which have led to some countries banning the platform. The corporation is facing several lawsuits in the United States for alleged failures to protect children.
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Around 40% of Roblox players are under 13 years old, and Roblox Corporation stated in 2020 that half of all American children used the platform. Child exploitation groups such as 764 and CVLT have operated on Roblox to groom children, and at least 30 people have been arrested since 2018 in the United States for abducting or sexually abusing children they had groomed on the platform. Some users have taken to online vigilantism to catch potential child predators; Roblox Corporation has faced significant controversy after taking legal action against some of these users. Additionally, Roblox has been criticized for its use of microtransactions, advergames, and brand ambassadors, as well as for the alleged financial exploitation of young game developers.
Roblox Corporation has responded to some concerns by launching updates intended to boost child safety, and it employs about 3,000 moderators. In 2024, "social hangout" games were restricted to players over 13 years old, and the platform implemented parental controls automatically blocking direct messages to users under 13. The platform implemented a rehaul of its friend system with age verification through facial recognition or through a government-issued ID. Additionally, in 2025, social hangout games featuring private locations such as bedrooms and bathrooms were restricted to users at least 17 years old. Roblox also allows parents to disable in-app microtransactions and limit which games their children can play.
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Background
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Roblox is an online game platform and game creation system developed and managed by Roblox Corporation, built around user-generated content and games,[2][3] officially referred to as "experiences".[4] Games can be created by any user through the platform's game engine, Roblox Studio,[5] and then shared to and played by other players.[2] The games featured on Roblox vary in genre, from role-playing games to ones centered around escaping prison, among others.[6] The platform is made to appeal to a family-friendly audience, and has been described as a massively multiplayer online game (MMO).[7] While Roblox is free-to-play, it features a virtual currency known as "Robux" that can be purchased with real-world money. Robux can be used to purchase virtual items that the player can use on their virtual character (or "avatar") on the platform, or access experiences that require payment.[2] Once a developer has accrued 30,000 Robux (about $105 USD), they may exchange the Robux for real-world currency through the Developer Exchange program.[8]
In 2025 Q2, Roblox reported a daily active user count of over 100 million, its highest on record.[9] A December 2017 study found that children ages 5 to 9 primarily spend their time playing Roblox over all other activities when using a PC.[10] According to the company in 2020, the monthly player base included half of all American children under the age of 16.[11][12][13] As of 2024, around 40% of all players are under the age of 13. Matt Kaufman is the chief safety officer at Roblox.[14] The European video game content rating system PEGI classifies the game as "parental guidance recommended", while prior to September 2022 it classified the game as "suitable for 7 years and over". It cited the fact that the game hosts millions of instances of user-generated content which makes the platform difficult to classify as a whole.[8]
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Grooming
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Online child exploitation groups such as 764 and CVLT have been discovered operating on Roblox, something which has been acknowledged by Roblox themselves.[15][16][17] In December 2021, the YouTube channel People Make Games released a video featuring an interview with an anonymous 12-year-old child that was a victim of sexting with a 24-year-old Roblox game developer.[18] In 2022, a 13-year-old child was kidnapped after a man, using Roblox, coerced her to sneak out of her house.[19] In 2024, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that, since 2018, at least 24 people had been arrested in the United States on charges of abducting or sexually abusing children they had groomed on Roblox.[20] On June 25, 2025, Aftermath reported that 6 people had been arrested in the United States in connection to grooming on Roblox since the start of the year.[21]
Users have been documented evading Roblox content and chat moderation to perform sexual content by taking activity offsite to other social media platforms, especially Discord.[10][22] While some communities place age limits to prevent users from joining, applications obtained by Rolling Stone for players to "work" in adjacent sexual games on the platform showed that the large majority of users in these communities were under 15.[22] Bloomberg Businessweek reported the existence of forums on the dark web sharing tips on how to encourage children to contact predators offsite without detection by chat filters through the use of intentional typos and emojis.[20]
Sexual exploitation of children on Roblox has been used to justify and promote the short-selling of Roblox Corporation's stock by organizations such as The Bear Cave (which compiled a list of 16 arrests and indictments since 2020 among other instances of sexual abuse) and the investment firm Hindenburg Research. Roblox has rejected claims made by these organizations, alleging that they were highlighting rare instances and that their promotion only served to further an agenda of causing others to sell stock.[23][24][25] In March 2025, Roblox CEO David Baszucki said in response to concerns over child safety, "if you're not comfortable, don't let your kids be on Roblox".[26] He stated in July 2025 that Roblox could serve as an effective online dating platform and that it could help lonely people meet in real life. The video game magazine PC Gamer described these statements as "tone-deaf".[27]
Sex games
A common criticism in regards to child safety on Roblox is the proliferation of games that depict sex clubs (usually termed "condo games") that facilitate virtual sexual roleplay between users and how easily accessible they are to underage players.[29][30][31] Underage teenagers have been identified as both taking part in and facilitating these games.[10][22] Schlep and other activists have highlighted that these game exploit in-game emotes that could be used to create sexual scenes, such as push-ups and lying down.[32] These communities evade Roblox moderation by creating innocuous-looking games, usually meant to look like spin-offs of the popular game Adopt Me!, and only leaving them online for a few hours. Another Roblox game that has received criticism is MeepCity due to the number of online daters inside the game and inappropriate clothing and actions found in the party feature.[33] Rolling Stone profiled one 16-year-old girl who performed child prostitution as part of these games, who stated that she primarily did it for attention and secondarily for monetary gain via Robux. Individuals taking part in these games appear to overwhelmingly identify as part of vulnerable or marginalized demographics, namely those of queer or BIPOC communities.[22] Sexual games on Roblox saw vastly increased use during the COVID-19 pandemic.[10][22]
Public Bathroom Simulator
In a Twitter thread reported on by Polygon, a woman stated that when she was investigating the Roblox games that her 5-year-old child was playing, she joined a game named Public Bathroom Simulator. The game mimicked a "public restroom environment". The woman reported that her character slipped on a puddle and was stuck on the ground, at which point several other players roleplayed sexually assaulting her. She also reported that her character's pants often disappeared.[34][35] Hindenburg Research cited a similar game, Public Bathroom Simulator Vibe, as one of the reasons Roblox is a "X-rated pedophile hellscape".[36] In a 2025 lawsuit by the state of Louisiana against Roblox, the state also alleged that Public Bathroom Simulator Vibe was a sexually explicit game.[37]
Anti-pedophile activism
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, some Roblox users have become "vigilante gamers" in response to Roblox's perceived poor moderation and failure to protect children. Ben Simon, known online by the pseudonym Ruben Sim, published screenshots that had been sent to him showing a Roblox game developer speaking to children about rape fantasies. He also created a video compiling allegations against the developer and sent it to an employee of Roblox. The developer was banned four days later before being arrested by the FBI for paying an Uber driver to transport a 15-year-old girl from Indiana to have sex with him in New Jersey. The Roblox Corporation subsequently filed a $1.6 million lawsuit against Simon, alleging that he was the leader of a "cult-like cybermob" intending to damage the company's reputation. Court documents show that the lawsuit was settled after Simon agreed to pay the Roblox Corporation $150,000.[20]
In August 2025, Roblox Corporation issued a cease-and-desist letter to Schlep, a YouTuber prominent for conducting sting operations against alleged online predators via the platform, which has resulted in multiple arrests. Roblox Corporation's letter stated that the activities of Schlep and other vigilante streamers were a violation of the platform's terms of service, and created an unsafe environment for users. Concurrent with the legal notice, Roblox terminated all accounts associated with Schlep and his group, and IP-banned him from the platform.[38][39] This has also prompted multiple Roblox-affiliated content creators of the Roblox Video Stars Program to leave the platform as protest. Following the controversy, Roblox Corporation's stock price fell by over 10%.[40] The company's actions were met with major backlash from many online communities who viewed Schlep's actions as necessary for community policing. The situation escalated significantly days later and included calls for the CEO to resign and a petition by U.S. representative Ro Khanna.[41] On August 15, Schlep said that he aims to counter-sue Roblox and that he had hired lawyers to fight its accusations.[42][43]
American television journalist Chris Hansen, known for the television show To Catch a Predator, said in August 2025 that he was producing a documentary film about the state of child safety on the Roblox platform, and that he had interviewed law enforcement, abuse victims, and Schlep for the project.[44]
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Financial exploitation
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Roblox's business model has been criticized, with the platform being accused of featuring exploitative practices that target children;[45][46] Professor Jane Juffer at Cornell University accused Roblox of encouraging consumerism in children.[47] Some found that the platform made it very easy to purchase microtransactions, leading to numerous instances where children have spent large sums of money on the platform without parents' knowledge.[48][49]
In April 2022, Truth in Advertising filed a complaint against Roblox with the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising, mainly failing to disclose when advertising is present, such as with advergames and brand ambassadors.[50] As a response, Roblox hid advertisements from users under the age of 13 starting in March 2023.[51] However, these restrictions did not apply to advergames, leading to further criticism by Truth in Advertising and children's digital rights organization 5Rights.[52]
Investigative journalism YouTube channel People Make Games accused the platform of "exploiting" younger game developers by promising them large amounts of money from creating games, only to apply high revenue cuts and leaving creators with little to no income. They likened the platform's business model to a company scrip.[45][46] After Roblox requested the channel to take down the video, People Make Games released several more accusations towards Roblox, focused on an alleged lack of oversight of developers and a method for people to address developer abuse, leading to child developers being exploited for labor on third-party platforms. They also criticized the platform's virtual economy, comparing the limited collectibles market to gambling.[38][53][54][55]
Roblox hosts many games which feature loot boxes—consumable virtual items gives items based on random chance. Loot boxes have been criticized for promoting gambling towards children.[8][30] Loot boxes are recommended by Roblox as one of the monetization strategies the developers may employ.[8]
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Political extremism and violence
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Roblox has been criticized several times for hosting politically extremist-related material.[57][58][59][60] Examples of politically extreme content that has appeared on the platform throughout its history include content related to far-right ideologies such as neo-fascism and neo-Nazism,[58][60] such as games that allow players to roleplay as Nazis or recreate real world massacres such as the Christchurch mosque shootings,[60][58] the Columbine High School massacre and the Uvalde school shooting.[56] Online child exploitation groups which operate on the platform like 764 and CVLT are also known to hold neo-Nazi and other extremist ideologies.[15][16][17]
According to a 2022 report by The Weekend Australian, "dozens" of forums exist to show Roblox players how to make Nazi-inspired content without being banned, such as rearranging the colors of the Nazi flag and altering the Swastika.[61] One high-profile group in Roblox, called "The Senate and People of Rome", outlawed "race-mixing, feminism" and homosexuality, while also requiring another player, who was Jewish, to wear a "Judea tunic or be arrested on sight". According to former members, the group's leader (who was styled as Führer) would occasionally ask high-ranking members to do things like read Schutzstaffel manuals or listen to far-right podcasts about a school shooter. The former members estimated that approximately one third of the group's leaders held overtly fascist beliefs.[58]
A 2023 study by researchers from Pennsylvania State University analyzing discussion among users of the community noted that roleplaying games aligned with prejudiced or extremist values seemed to hide or only imply their values to players, occurrences of which usually took place in military roleplaying games. The same study also took notice of the genre of "hood games", in which players roleplay as gangsters in low-class neighborhoods, for promoting prejudice and stereotypes against African Americans and those of lower socioeconomic status. In-game mechanics for self-expression such as user avatars, item decorations, and spray paint tools were also identified as being used to spread extremist and hateful imagery.[30]
In January 2025, an 18-year-old from Round Rock, Texas using the online alias "Crazz3pain" was reported to authorities for using Roblox to plan a terrorist attack inspired by ISIS on a Christian music concert and saying that he wanted to "kill Shia Muslims at their mosque". The FBI analyzed a keylogger on his computer, and discovered he had planned to commit "martyrdom", and "deal a grevious [sic] wound upon the followers of the Cross".[64] The person had also searched phrases on his phone including "Festivals happening near me", "are suicide attacks haram in islam", "ginger isis member", "lone wolf terrorists isis", and "can tou [sic] kill a woman who foesnt [sic] wear hijab".[62] On February 28, 2025, He was arrested with a bond set at $200,000, on May 19, Crazz3pain was released to federal custody.[63][65]
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Moderation and safety updates
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In October 2020, Roblox said the company employed 1,600 full-time employees dedicated to moderating content.[66] In 2024, it was reported that the platform had 3,000 moderators.[20] Roblox allows parents to disable in-app microtransactions and limit which games their children can play.[67] Roblox developers are required to fill out a questionnaire which will determine the game's maturity rating, ranging from "minimal" to "restricted", which are only available to users who have verified they are at least 17 years old through government-issued ID.[8][68]
On November 6, 2024, Roblox made an announcement to their developer forum that "social hangouts", specifically experiences meant for socialization rather than playing games, and games that allowed for users to draw on 2D canvases would no longer be allowed for users under 13. Developers would also need to designate their games as meant for users under 13, otherwise their games would no longer be accessible to those users. These restrictions were planned to take effect in 2025.[69]
On November 18, 2024, Roblox announced that they would be implementing new safety features for children under 13 set to take effect in the first quarter of 2025. Specifically, they added new parental controls options that would block direct messaging to children outside of games, by default automatically blocking of direct messages in and outside of experiences to users under 13. They also reimplemented "experience guidelines" as "content labels" that parents could use with parental controls settings to regulate the content their child was allowed to see. By default, users under 9 were only allowed to access "minimal" and "mild" experiences, whereas "moderate" experiences would require parental consent.[70][71][72]
In May 2025, Roblox hired Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov, a former Lego Group executive, to lead parental advocacy in the company.[21] On July 17, 2025, Roblox announced that they would be reworking their friends list feature to consist of "connections" and "trusted connections". Players linked with a trusted connection would have chat filters removed between each other, specifically in hopes that users would be less likely to leave Roblox for platforms they did not moderate, but could only be accessed after using an AI-based age verification system using facial recognition. If the user's age could not be determined with high confidence after a facial scan, the platform would ask for the ID of the user or their parent. Teens who pass the age test would be able to add anyone aged 13 through 17 as a trusted connection without restriction, though users over 18 years old would need to use a QR code or phone number to add verified teen users.[73]
In August 2025, Roblox announced that social hangout games featuring private spaces, such as bedrooms or bathrooms, would only be accessible to users who have verified they are at least 17 years old through government-issued ID. Roblox stated that this policy change was launched "earlier than we had planned".[74]
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Legal actions and regulation
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Concerns over child safety on the platform has led to Roblox being banned in Turkey in August 2024[75][76][77][78] and Qatar in August 2025.[79][80][81] In August 2025, Indonesia requested that Roblox strengthen its chat filters to remove harmful content and enhance child safety,[82] warning that failure to comply could result in a ban.[83] The government of Guatemala issued a warning about the platform to parents in 2021.[84] The Netherlands and Belgium have restricted certain games on the platform due to their regulations on in-game "loot boxes", which give out items based on random or unknown chances, to reduce children's exposure to gambling.[85]
United States
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Attorneys General Liz Murrill of Louisiana and James Uthmeier of Florida have both taken legal action against Roblox Corporation over child safety concerns.
In October 2022, a lawsuit was filed by a parent in the San Francisco Superior Court. The lawsuit alleges that Roblox connected their daughter with online predators, who sexually exploited her by coercing her to send sexually explicit photos to them on Discord and Snapchat; those corporations were also named in the lawsuit.[86][87]
In August 2023, a class-action lawsuit was brought against Roblox Corporation. The lawsuit alleges that Roblox profited off minors when they bought Robux to participate in third-party gambling rings, violating the RICO act.[88][89] That same month, a different class action lawsuit was filed by parents against Roblox for false advertising, exposing children to sexual content, and enabling children to spend large amounts of their parents' money.[90][91]
In February 2025, Bloomberg News reported that Roblox was under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for unknown reasons.[92][93] From February to May 2025, law firm Anapol Weiss filed four different lawsuits against Roblox on behalf of children for alleged exploitation by adults. The law firm stated it was "investigating hundreds of similar cases" and intended to file more lawsuits in the subsequent months. Roblox stated they could not comment on ongoing litigation per company policy.[21] In April 2025, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a subpoena to Roblox about uses of the platform by users age 16 and under as well as the platform's protections for children against "mature content". Uthmeier also sought communications to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and reports of abuse to and from Florida users among other things via the subpoena.[21]
On August 14, 2025, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a child protection lawsuit against Roblox Corporation.[94][95] The suit alleged that by actively shutting down independent efforts to expose potential dangers on its platform, Roblox was failing in its duty to protect underage users from harm.[96] Roblox Corporation responded to the lawsuit on August 15, stating that they continuously work "to enhance our moderation approaches to promote a safe and enjoyable environment for all users".[97]
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References
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