Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, announced on Thursday that he has filed a lawsuit against the Roblox Corporation, the company responsible for the online Roblox game. Paxton’s lawsuit accuses Roblox of becoming a “sprawling and unregulated digital playground that is overrun by
predators and saturated with sexual content.”
In a Thursday press release, the Texas attorney general’s office announced that Paxton was suing the multi-billion-dollar video game developer for “flagrantly ignoring state and federal online safety laws while deceiving parents about the dangers of its platform.” The press release noted that Roblox is currently one of the largest online gaming platforms designed for children.
“Roblox markets itself as a safe digital space of creativity, but in reality it has become a breeding ground for predators,” the press release stated. “Children in Texas have been repeatedly exposed to sexually explicit content, exploitation, and grooming because Roblox chose to put pixel predators and corporate profit over the safety of Texas children.”
According to The Texas Tribune, the Texas attorney general’s lawsuit comes after Louisiana and Kentucky both sued Roblox over claims that the company is not adequately protecting minors on the video game platform. The outlet noted that individual families have also filed dozens of lawsuits against the company claiming that children have been exposed to explicit content, sexually abused, or exploited while participating on the gaming platform.
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“We cannot allow platforms like Roblox to continue operating as digital playgrounds for predators where the well-being of our kids is sacrificed on the altar of corporate greed,” Paxton stated in Thursday’s press release. “Roblox must do more to protect kids from sick and twisted freaks hiding behind a screen. Any corporation that enables child abuse will face the full unrelenting force of the law.”
In a statement to Fox 7 following Paxton’s announcement on Thursday, Roblox claimed it shares the attorney general’s commitment to “keeping kids and teens safe online.” The company explained it has implemented “industry-leading protocols” to protect Roblox users and remove “bad actors” from the platform. The company also claimed that Paxton’s lawsuit was based on “misrepresentations” and “sensationalized claims.”
“Roblox is deeply committed to child safety. Our policies are purposefully stricter than those found on many other platforms,” the company stated. “We prohibit the sharing of images and videos in chat, use filters designed to block the exchange of personal information and our trained teams and automated tools continuously monitor communications to detect and remove harmful content.”
Roblox told Fox 7 that it has implemented more than 145 safety measures on the online gaming platform this year and that the company is developing an “age estimation” tool that is intended to prevent adult users from communicating with minors.
