Iowa Sues Roblox as South Carolina Investigates Harms to Children
Roblox saw its legal troubles grow Tuesday as Iowa became the latest state to sue the gaming platform for failing to protect children from sexual exploitation and related harms. Also on Tuesday, the South Carolina attorney general said his state is investigating Roblox for deceiving parents about the platform's safety.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Privacy Daily provides accurate coverage of newsworthy developments in data protection legislation, regulation, litigation, and enforcement for privacy professionals responsible for ensuring effective organizational data privacy compliance.
Roblox has "long been aware” of patterns “of grooming and predatory behavior” on the platform and there's "limited content moderation," said Iowa's suit. Users “from 4 years old or even younger to adults of all ages” can create Roblox accounts and navigate the platform with “absolute anonymity."
Further, Roblox “has failed to implement reasonable guardrails” and has “falsely and deceptively advertised its platform as safe for children” through “misleading statements” and “misrepresentations of fact.”
Recent changes Roblox has implemented “are far too little and far too late,” and they came only after “legal troubles began to mount,” added the complaint, which was filed in state court.
The AGs of Louisiana (see 2508140051), Kentucky (see 2510070042), Florida (see 2512110029) and Texas (see 251160054) have also sued the platform for harms to children. Roblox has denied the allegations (see 2508150046 and 2510080005).
“Roblox must either make their game a safe place for children or stop doing business in our state,” said Iowa AG Brenna Bird (R) in a release. Additionally, “parents must be told the truth so they can protect their children online from inappropriate material, grooming, exploitation, and other predatory practices.”
Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said in a statement to Privacy Daily that the Iowa lawsuit "contains patently false claims about our platform." He stressed that Roblox employs "advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications," and "users cannot send or receive images via chat," which eliminates "one of the most prevalent opportunities for misuse seen elsewhere online."
"Safety is a constant and consistent focus of our work, and we are currently rolling out additional measures to further limit who users can chat with," he added. "We take swift action against anyone found to violate our safety rules and work closely with law enforcement to support investigations and help hold bad actors accountable."
Also Tuesday, South Carolina AG Alan Wilson (R) said his state is investigating the gaming platform for violating the state's Unfair Trade Practices Act by misrepresenting the safety of children.
Similar to the complaints of other states, South Carolina pointed to Roblox lacking “adequate age-verification or parental consent controls,” despite being “saturated with sexualized content.” The Civil Investigative Demand seeks information regarding the number of South Carolina minors who access the site, content moderation and targeted ads for minors.
“Roblox markets itself as the #1 gaming site for kids and teens,” Wilson said in a release. “But ensuring the safety of our children online is a top priority for me, and if Roblox is deceiving parents on their safety protocols, they deserve to be held accountable.”
Kaufman said Roblox shares the South Carolina AG's "commitment to helping keep children safe online," echoing the fact that the platform has safeguards in place. While "no system can be perfect," he said, Roblox's "commitment to safety never ends."