Roblox Isn’t Safe for Your Kids. In Fact, It’s a ‘Pedophile Hellscape.’
By Movieguide® Contributor
New research shows that the popular online video game, Roblox, is not safe for children.
“A new report describes Roblox as ‘a pedophile hellscape for kids.’ Researchers easily identified 38 Roblox groups — one with as many as 103,000 members — openly trading child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and soliciting sexual acts from minors,” the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) reported.
“User names like ‘@igruum_minors’ [I groom minors], and ‘@RavpeTinyK1dsJE’ [rape tiny kids] are common, with 900+ variations alone of abuser Jeffrey Epstein and multiple variations using Earl Brian Bradley, who was indicted on 471 charges of molesting, raping, and exploiting 103 children,” the group continued.
The platform allows users to create their own games, and researchers found that bad actors have taken advantage of this feature.
“Researchers also found sexual abuse-themed games, many of which they were able to access when registered as a child, including ones centered on convicted sex offenders like ‘Escape to Epstein Island’ and ‘Run From Diddy Simulator,'” NCOSE said.
“Roblox is compromising child safety in order to report growth to investors, per our interview with a former senior product designer,” Hindenburg Research explained.
NCOSE shared a few examples of how kids are targeted on Roblox:
The 11-year-old New Jersey girl who was kidnapped by a predator who played video games with her on Roblox, a platform her parents understandably assumed was safe.
Or the 13-year-old Utah boy who also fell victim to an abuser on Roblox who kidnapped and sexually assaulted him before the authorities intervened and thankfully brought him home.
Lina Nealon, NCOSE Vice President and Director of Corporate Advocacy, commended the Hindenburg Research study for exposing the bad and dangerous business practices of Roblox.
“Roblox is rightly under fire from investors, as the platform refuses to implement the most basic, common-sense measures to protect its young users – a quarter of which are under age nine,” Nealon said in a press release. “Roblox has knowingly left children vulnerable to the many predators and pornographic content rampant on its platform.”
“Roblox must make the platform safe by default and design, rather than continuously pushing more of the burden onto parents — and young children themselves — to try to monitor a platform with more than 50 million games,” she added.
“Roblox is a prime example for why Congress must immediately pass the Kids Online Safety Act, as it would force the platform to turn on available safety features and invest the necessary resources to protect their young users,” she continued.
KOSA, among other things, places “responsibility on social media companies to prevent and mitigate harms to minors resulting from use of their platforms,” per the APA.
“Online platforms have proven to us that they will not ‘do the right thing’ by our children unless they are compelled to do so. Congress must act with urgency – our children cannot wait,” Nealon emphasized.
Movieguide® previously reported on Roblox:
Although the blocky and expressionless characters are not inherently explicit, virtual sexual activity is still rampant. Moreover, there are real-life concerns about the activities that Katie is promoting. The 16-year-old says she’s received violent threats on the platform, and her family is unaware of her online activity.
The article also notes that even in-game chatrooms or virtual strip clubs can become gateways sexually explicit content accessed by minors.
According to the article, Katie confesses that moderation of sexual content is almost non-existent and is easily avoidable.
The article reads:
Popular, ostensibly SFW Roblox dance clubs like Club Iris, which has had more than 107 million visits since its inception in 2018, can also serve as “gateways” to more sexualized interactions on the platform, says Katie. “There are people on there who dance on rich guys for Roblox — 1,000 Robux, 2,000 Robux,” she says. “It’s moderated but very rarely. There are a few admins on there but they don’t do much. There’s a lot of attempts of girls to get sugar daddies. I’ve tried getting a sugar daddy” to give her Robux to buy clothes, hats, and games passes on the platform.