Attorney General Russell Coleman is leading the charge in a lawsuit against Roblox by Kentucky. Coleman alleges the gaming company has facilitated an environment in which predators can groom young victims online and distribute child sex abuse material. He said Roblox intentionally failed to implement safety features to protect children while also failing to inform parents of the dangers existing on the platform.
“This is not happening in the shadows. This vile conduct and the criminals behind it, they’ve been allowed to exist right there in the open where innocent children think they are just playing a cartoon game,” said Coleman.
Roblox can be accessed by children as young as six years old without consent or knowledge from a parent or guardian. Nearly two-thirds of all kids aged 9 to 12 in the United States play games on the platform. The company behind the game was valued at $41 billion in 2021 when it went public.
Jeremy Murrell, Kentucky Deputy Commissioner for Counter Exploitation, said predators use gaming to target kids.
“We know in the line of work that we do that predators gravitate towards gaming and other online platforms that are popular with children. That’s where their prey is, that’s where they’re going. They use these platforms to establish rapport with young users often posing as children themselves initially. Their goal is to exploit these children. They may do that on the platform they start on; they may move them to multiple other platforms,” said Murrell.
Earlier this year a 25-year-old in Kentucky plead guilty to being part of a plot to groom, extort, threaten, and conspire to kill children as young as 8-years-old using various online platforms. The man was connected to a group known as 764. The group is known to use Roblox and other platforms to carry out sextortion crimes.
Coleman has asked Madison Circuit Court to permanently block Roblox from continuing its unlawful conduct in Kentucky and to be penalized up to $2,000 for each willful violation in addition to any other applicable fines and penalties.