By Andrew Hoover · Contributing Writer
With over 78 million users every day and over 50,000 chat messages every second, Roblox dominates the online gaming world. The vast majority of this activity occurs between minors, making safety a natural expectation. But according to a recent lawsuit, Roblox has chosen profit over protection, sparking serious concerns about the platform’s priorities.
For years, Roblox has faced criticism for failing to protect children from predators on its platform. Earlier this year, a lawsuit alleged that a 13-year-old child was groomed through Roblox, leading to sexual abuse and kidnapping. The perpetrator was ultimately found guilty and charged with four counts of statutory rape. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident, as similar cases have revealed how often children are exposed to sexually explicit material on the site.
Cases like these are what pushed YouTuber Schlep to run his own operation, working directly with law enforcement to catch these predators by acting as decoys who would bait the predators to meet them in person, where law enforcement would be waiting. However, instead of commending his efforts, Roblox banned Schlep’s accounts, issued him a cease-and-desist and went so far as to claim he was “no better than the predators he was hunting.”
The decision sparked outrage across the Roblox community. Players rallied behind the slogan #FreeSchlep, plastering it across the platform, only to see Roblox respond with widespread bans on users displaying the phrase. Critics quickly pointed out the irony, noting that while Roblox cracked down on Schlep’s supporters, it has allowed questionable games and overtly sexualized player avatars to remain.
This fan-led campaign has turned into legal action as Schlep himself is suing Roblox. His lawsuit doesn’t center on the ban, but rather on his own past experience as a child victim of sexual assault on the app.
Working with popular lawyer YouTuber, Law By Mike, Schlep initiated a lawsuit against Roblox alleging that the company knowingly placed children in harm’s way to protect their own revenue stream. There have been countless cases of predators offering children “Robux” (currency you get by paying real life money) in exchange for sexual favors online. In many cases, predators have lured children off Roblox and onto third party apps where further exploitation has taken place. Disturbingly, there have been dozens of cases of child kidnapping and in-person abuse as a result.
Despite these risks, Roblox continues to operate with minimal safety precautions.
Safety settings are disabled by default, making young players especially vulnerable. Phone numbers are easily shared by simply spelling out the letters and banned words like “Snapchat” can be easily abbreviated to “snap.”
The lack of oversight becomes even more obvious when compared to other apps. TikTok, which has roughly three times Roblox’s activity, employs 13 times the number of moderators. Former Roblox employees allege that this is no accident. According to them, Roblox has intentionally capped its spending on moderation, ignoring a flood of moderator applications while leaving a massive backlog of in-game reports unresolved. Current moderators have also claimed their suggestions for stronger chat censorship and safety features have been dismissed outright.
Even as these allegations pile up, Roblox continues to reassure parents that its platform is safe and well-protected. The lawsuit filed by Schlep and Law By Mike seeks to prove otherwise, arguing that profit has been consistently prioritized over child safety.
