In a video post on X, Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Monday the State of Florida has issued criminal subpoenas to the creators behind Roblox, the popular online gaming platform popular with young children and teens.
Roblox "profited off of our kids while exposing them to the most dangerous of harms,” he said, referring to online predators preying on under-age users.
Roblox allows users to create games within its online platform that other users can play, such as its most popular game to date, “Brookhaven." Other games currently popular with users are“99 Nights in the Forest" and "Steal a Brainrot," which require communication and cooperation among online players.
The gaming platform says it averages 70 million players a month, with 22 million users on a daily basis.
However, that audience of young players, and the ability of fellow players to talk to them live, naturally attracts predators and pedophiles. That danger is why the National Center on Sexual Exploitation has called Roblox a “predator’s playground.”
Back in August, Haley McNamara, NCOSE executive director, warned parents the child safety group has been urging Roblox for years to implement more stringent safety standards.
"Roblox puts children in harm's way: predators groom children in chat rooms and games; minors can have sexually explicit 'experiences'; and there is minimal moderation and easy workarounds for safety controls," McNamara said at the time.
In comments to AFN about the subpoenas, a spokesman for Roblox said the company shares Attorney General Uthmeier's "commitment to keeping kids safe and we will continue to assist his office" in its investigations.
"We have a strong record of working with law enforcement and investing in advanced safety systems to help protect our users and remove bad actors," a Roblox spokesperson told AFN. "To safeguard users, we prohibit the sharing of images and videos in chat, use filters designed to block the exchange of personal information, and are working to implement age estimation for all users accessing chat features.”
The spokesman also credited “trained teams” and “automated tools” that monitor online communications for harmful content.
“We are committed to leading the industry in safety and transparency,” the spokesman stated.
The spokesman also said 64% of current Roblox users are age 13 or older.
