A popular financial newsletter accuses Roblox of allowing large-scale child sexual exploitation and inappropriate content on its platform, based on years of media reports. The accusations are detailed in The bear cavea short sale newsletter, but Roblox says The bear cave Founder highlights rare cases of abuse for profit by making service look bad.
“This article contains misleading, irresponsible, and in many cases false allegations about Roblox to further the author’s motives as a short seller,” said Eric Porterfield, senior director of policy communications at Roblox. The edge. “We reject the assertion that child endangerment is a widespread or systemic problem on Roblox, and millions of people have a safe and positive experience on the platform every day.”
The Bear Cave report lists 16 cases since 2020 in which adults were arrested or charged with sexually exploiting children they met on Roblox, one of which involved a man who “groomed 150 children to engage in sexual activity.” on the platform. It also analyzes so-called “condo games” in which users simulate sex, such as previously reported by the BBC. To be sure, these documented cases involve a small fraction of Roblox’s enormous user base: the platform has more than 79 million daily active users, 42 percent of whom are 13 years old or younger. according to VentureBeat.
Porterfield said The edge that Roblox continually updates its security practices to “detect and prevent malicious activity” on the platform, including blocking inappropriate words and phrases in chat and not allowing image-by-image sharing. Roblox says that condo games are usually removed quickly (within minutes) and are difficult to find for the average user.
The Bear Cave report also claims that Roblox hosts inappropriate non-sexual content, including games in which players recreate school shootings or the Holocaust. The edge has previously reported on re-enactments of mass shootings, including the mosque attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Roblox, and cabling journalists have seen Nazi role-playing games on the platform. In August 2023, two California families sued Roblox for allegedly allowing illegal gaming networks to prey on children on the platform. Roblox has tried unsuccessfully to have the charges dismissed.
Reports of inappropriate content on Roblox (sexual or otherwise) are not a new problem for the service and are not necessarily surprising given its tens of millions of users. Still, it’s a particularly hot-button issue for Roblox at a time when lawmakers and advocates are debating how much responsibility the platforms have in protecting children.
Roblox has been involved in lobbying to shape the Child Online Safety Act, and its executive director, David Baszucki, traveled to Capitol Hill earlier this year to meet with lawmakers. “One of the specific things with KOSA is that we want to make sure that when young people learn to create and share their creations, for example, that they don’t get discouraged,” Baszucki said in an April interview with command lineIt’s Alex Heath. “Or when there is organic learning on our platform or positive communication in some way, we don’t restrict it.”