Nebraska AG Sues Gaming Giant Over Alleged ‘Pedophile Problem’
by John Gage
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers filed a lawsuit today against online gaming giant Roblox, alleging that the company has “created and maintained” an environment that gives rein to adult predators and the sexual exploitation of children.
“Parents deserve the truth,” Hilgers said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “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.”
The attorney general alleges that Roblox had prior “detailed knowledge of widespread exploitation” occurring on their platform, including: direct contact between minors and adult predators, simulated criminal activity, inadequate parental controls, and sexually explicit, violent, and age-inappropriate content.
The complaint alleges that Roblox is actively violating the Nebraska Consumer Protection Act and the Nebraska Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The Attorney General’s Office says the company has “long refused to implement reasonable, common-sense, and feasible safety precautions.”
“For years, Roblox has known that it has a pedophile problem. It built an extremely popular interactive gaming and social media platform by doing what other social media companies would not: marketing to and accepting pre-teenage users,” the complaint said. “Despite profiting from running a ‘virtual playground’ for millions of vulnerable children, Roblox refused to take basic precautions needed to make that ‘virtual playground’ safe. As a result, sexual predators have repeatedly used Roblox to groom and eventually abduct and sexually assault children.”
In a statement in response to the attorney general, Roblox said it is committed to “keeping kids and teens safe online.”
“We are disappointed that he is choosing to file a lawsuit that fundamentally misrepresents how Roblox works. Roblox is built with safety at its core, and we strengthen our protections every day,” the spokesperson said. “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 those found to violate our rules, and work closely with law enforcement to support investigations,” the spokesperson added.
The attorney general said Roblox's claims to safety are part of a “charm offensive” meant to mislead families that the platform is safe.
“In response, rather than fixing the problem, Roblox launched a multiyear charm offensive designed to mislead Nebraska children and their parents into believing that Roblox is a ‘safe, moderated’ place,” the complaint said. “This included, but was not limited to, falsely claiming that Roblox takes ‘every precaution possible’ to protect children, and misrepresenting the size, training, employment status, policies, procedures, and success metrics of its content moderation division.”
Roblox has been around for 20 years, but it was not until the pandemic that the platform took off in popularity. Now, it boasts over 110 million daily active users, most of whom are children. Roblox is unique in that it allows children as young as 5 years old to join the platform, a policy that many other competitors have avoided over the risk of having children groomed on their platforms.
Since last year, over 20 lawsuits have been filed against Roblox regarding child exploitation.
John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.
