Nebraska Sues Roblox Over Child Safety Worries

Attorney General Hilgers recently announced a major consumer protection and child safety lawsuit against Roblox Corporation, alleging that the company has knowingly created and maintained an online environment that exposes millions of children to sexual predators, violent content, and illegal activity while misleading parents about the platform’s safety.The complaint asserts that Roblox, despite having detailed knowledge of widespread exploitation occurring on the platform, markets itself as a safe, child friendly space while simultaneously failing to implement basic safeguards to protect minors. According to the lawsuit, Roblox has become one of the most widely used online platforms for children, with tens of millions of daily users, many under the age of 13. Yet the company allegedly allows: Direct contact between minors and adult predators, including through private messaging, voice chat, and user generated “experiences.” Sexually explicit, violent, and age inappropriate content, often accessible to children as young as six. Simulated criminal activity, including graphic depictions of violence and other harmful scenarios. Inadequate parental controls that are difficult to use, easy to bypass, or misleading in their effectiveness.The Attorney General’s Office says Roblox has long been aware of these dangers but chose profit over safety, allowing harmful content and predatory behavior to proliferate. Specifically, the lawsuit calls out Roblox’s public statements and marketing materials for falsely assuring parents that the platform is safe, moderated, and designed with child protection in mind. Instead, the suit alleges, Roblox has long refused to implement reasonable, common-sense, and feasible safety precautions. Even existing safety measures, which were implemented following legal action, are easily avoided, under resourced, and incapable of addressing the scale of abuse occurring on the platform.“Parents deserve the truth,” said Attorney General Hilgers. “Roblox has built a multibillion dollar business on the trust of families, all while creating a playground for predators and exposing children to graphic and dangerous content. Our office will not tolerate companies that endanger kids and mislead the public.”Roblox disputes the allegations. In a statement, Matt Kaufman, Roblox Chief Safety Officer, said, “While we share Attorney General Hilgers’ commitment to keeping kids and teens safe online, we are disappointed that he has filed a lawsuit that fundamentally misrepresents how Roblox works. Roblox is built with safety at its core, and we strengthen our protections every day. In our ongoing efforts to help keep our community safe, we prohibit user-to-user image and video sharing, utilize rigorous filters to block personal information from being shared, and enforce global age-based settings that limit younger users to chatting with peers by default. We take swift action against anyone who violates our rules, and we work closely with law enforcement to support investigations and help hold bad actors accountable. When it comes to safety, there is no finish line, and while no system can be perfect, our commitment to protecting our platform never wavers.”This action is the latest in a series of state level investigations and lawsuits targeting online platforms that allegedly fail to protect minors. Attorney General Hilgers has brought similar actions against social media platforms Meta and TikTok.

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