Louisiana’s top prosecutor sued the popular online gaming platform Roblox on Thursday, alleging that its failure to implement strong safety protocols for children has made it “the perfect place for pedophiles.”
The suit, filed by Attorney General Liz Murrill in Louisiana’s 21st Judicial District, accuses the California-based company of intentionally or recklessly designing a platform with no age verification process, allowing Roblox’s tens of millions of users to easily create accounts with fake birthdays.
Adults can pose as children, according to the suit, and kids can bypass controls meant for users under 13.
Launched in 2006, Roblox has a sprawling catalogue of games and “experiences,” many of which are designed by users and include real-time messaging. According to the company’s 2024-25 annual report, 20% of the platform’s 82 million active users were under age 9, the lawsuit says.
“Roblox is overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritizes user growth, revenue, and profits over child safety,” Murrill said in a statement. “Every parent should be aware of the clear and present danger [posed] to their children by Roblox so they can prevent the unthinkable from ever happening in their own home.”
The 42-page suit points to a raft of sexually explicit “experiences” that have been on the platform, including “Escape to Epstein Island,” “Diddy Party” and “Public Bathroom Simulator Vibe,” and it alleges that a man arrested on suspicion of possessing child sexual abuse material in Louisiana last month was using the platform at the time he was taken into custody.
The man had used voice-altering technology to mimic the sound of a young female to lure and sexually exploit minors on the platform, according to the suit.
The suit, which alleges unfair trade practices, negligence and unjust enrichment, does not specify damages but seeks a permanent order barring Roblox from violating the state’s unfair trade practices act or promoting its safety features as adequate, which the suit says it routinely does.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Roblox said that while the company is committed to working with the prosecutor’s office to keep kids safe, it is “categorically untrue” that Roblox would intentionally put users at risk of exploitation.
The spokesperson cited the “vast resources” Roblox dedicates to supporting a safe platform and the rigorous safeguards it has, including restrictions on sharing personal information, links and user-to-user image sharing.
“Unfortunately, bad actors will try to circumvent our systems to try to direct users off the platform, where safety standards and moderation practices may differ,” the spokesperson said. “We continuously work to block those efforts and to enhance our moderation approaches to promote a safe and enjoyable environment for all users.”
In November, the platform announced a series of safety measures that barred users under age 13 from sending direct messages and included new content categories to help determine what is age-appropriate for users.
Those measures were rolled out the month after New York-based analyst Hindenburg Research called Roblox an “X-rated pedophile hellscape, exposing children to grooming, pornography, violent content and extremely abusive speech.”
Roblox denied the claim, saying in a statement that the analyst’s report was misleading and citing what it described as significant investment in trust and safety measures.
Thursday’s lawsuit described the company’s recent safety measures as “too little, too late, and woefully inadequate.”
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