Florida AG sues Roblox over child safety concerns

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s lawsuit is the latest linking the most popular online gaming platform to sexual predators.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CN) — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier took aim at the Roblox Corporation on Thursday in a lawsuit calling the online game platform a “hunting ground for sexual predators.”In the 76-page complaint, Uthmeier outlined insufficient age verification controls to prevent children from accessing adult content while also allowing adults to contact minors.The complaint details an investigation by the attorney general’s office that included creating fake accounts for a seven-year-old girl, an eight-year-old boy, a 10-year-old boy, a 15-year-old girl and a 47-year-old male.“Roblox has long made no effort to verify users’ age or obtain parental consent at signup,” Uthmeier said in the suit. “As a result, adults can pretend to be children — and more easily contact and groom actual children — while children can easily evade even the minor protections that Roblox has implemented.”The investigators then used the fake minors’ accounts to access games with adult content, including those where “users can remove their avatars’ clothing and engage in disturbing sexual activities” or visit strip clubs. Uthmeier also notes in the suit there have been hundreds of games recreating the notorious Diddy “freak-off” parties or set on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.“As a platform made for children but that actively invites adults, that does virtually nothing to vet or exclude users and is replete with content celebrating notorious sex criminals — it is no surprise that Roblox has a pedophile problem,” Uthmeier said.In the suit filed in conservative Baker County, the attorney general, claims five violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and asks the court for an injunction.“As a father of three little ones and Florida’s attorney general my number one priority is simple: protect our kids,” Uthmeier said in an X post announcing the lawsuit. “Roblox broke the trust of parents, and my office will make sure they answer for it.”Launched in 2006, Roblox is an online platform that allows users to play games made by other uses or hang out in virtual worlds. The company claims more than 111 million daily users worldwide.The attorney general’s lawsuit is one of dozens filed across the country against the gaming platform by families and state attorneys, alleging the company failed to take adequate measures to protect children from sexual predators.In August, the family of a kidnapped 10-year-old girl in California sued the company. That lawsuit followed another in July filed by the family of a 11-year-old who was groomed and sexually assaulted after meeting an adult on Roblox. Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a similar lawsuit as Uthmeier’s.Florida’s attorney general has focused heavily on social media companies’ effects on children since heading the office earlier this year, including defending a 2024 state law banning social media accounts for children under 14 and requiring parental permission for those 14 to 15 years old. In April, Uthmeier filed a lawsuit against Snapchat for violating that law.In addition to Thursday’s lawsuit, Uthmeier issued criminal subpoenas in October to Roblox over similar concerns over child safety.In response to the criticisms over child safety, Roblox recently unveiled artificial intelligence-based technology for facial age-estimation in addition to ID-based verification.“This lawsuit fundamentally misrepresents how Roblox works,” Matt Kaufman, chief safety officer for Roblox, said in a statement. “Roblox is built with safety at its core. We have advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications. Users cannot send or receive images via chat, eliminating one of the most prevalent opportunities for misuse seen elsewhere online. We are also rolling out additional measures to further limit who users can chat with, going beyond what is required by law and what other platforms do.”“Our commitment to safety never ends,” Kaufman continued. “No system is perfect, which is why we continue to evolve and work to strengthen our protections every day.”Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing
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