Roblox sued by Southern California families alleging children met predators on its platform

Video game platform Roblox is facing more lawsuits from parents who claim the San Mateo, Calif., company isn’t doing enough to protect children from sexual predators.

A Los Angeles County mother, whose identity was not revealed during a November trial, alleges that her daughter met a predator on Roblox who persuaded her child to send sexually explicit photos of her to the social media platform Discord. The woman is suing Roblox and the San Francisco company Discord.

When her daughter signed up for the gaming platform last year at age 12, the woman believed Roblox was safe because it was marketed to children and for educational purposes, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

But then her daughter befriended a person on Roblox known as “Precious” who claimed to be 15 and told her child that she had been abused at home and had no friends, according to the lawsuit. His daughter, accompanied by a friend’s parents, met the Roblox user on a beach. The person appeared older and attempted to introduce her to a group of older men.

After they met, the predator tried to persuade the girl to visit his apartment in Fullerton alone and attempted to take her away from her family. The child suffered psychological trauma, depression and other emotional distress due to his experiences on Roblox and Discord, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit accuses Roblox and Discord of prioritizing profits over safety, creating a “digital” and “real-life” nightmare for children. It also alleges that company failures are systematic and that other children have also been harmed by encountering predators on the platforms.

“His innocence was taken from him and his life will never be the same,” the lawsuit states.

Roblox said in a statement that it was “deeply troubled by any incident that puts a user at risk” and prioritizes online safety.

“We also understand that no system is perfect and that is why we are constantly working to further improve our safety tools and platform restrictions to ensure that parents can trust us to keep their children safe online, launching 145 new initiatives this year alone,” the statement said.

Discord has said it is committed to safety and requires users to be at least 13 years old to use its platform.

“We maintain robust systems to prevent the spread of sexual exploitation and grooming on our platform and also work with other technology companies and security organizations to improve online safety on the Internet,” the company said in a statement.

The lawsuit is the latest scrutiny facing Roblox, a platform popular with young people. More than 151 million people use it daily. Earlier this year, the platform faced a wave of lawsuits from people in various states who allege predators are posing as children on the platform and sexually exploiting children.

NBC4 News, which earlier reported on the lawsuit, also reported that Roblox is facing another lawsuit from a Riverside California family who alleges their child was sexually assaulted by a man the child met on Roblox. This man was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Roblox has taken new steps this year to address growing child safety concerns. In November, the company announced that it would require users to verify their age to chat with other players. Roblox users would provide ID or take a video selfie to verify their age. The verification feature estimates a person’s age, allowing the company to limit conversations between children and adults.

The Los Angeles County woman’s lawsuit called Roblox’s 2024 security changes “woefully inadequate” and said they were made “too late.”

“These changes could all have been implemented years ago,” the lawsuit states. “None of them involve new or revolutionary technology. Roblox only moved forward when its stock was threatened.”