Lawsuit filed after Calif. girl, 10, kidnapped by man she met online

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A new lawsuit was filed in San Mateo County court on behalf of a 10-year-old California girl who was allegedly kidnapped by a 27-year-old man whom she met online. Roblox and Discord, two popular online gaming apps, are named as defendants in the suit.

The 10-year-old girl was an avid user of both apps for several years, attorneys said. “She relied heavily on the apps for entertainment and social interaction, making her a prime target for the countless child predators that Defendants knew were freely roaming the app looking for vulnerable children,” litigation firm Anapol Weiss

wrote.

In April, 27-year-old Matthew Macatuno Naval posed as a child online and developed a “friendship” with the girl through Roblox, the lawsuit filed on Monday claims.

“Naval later moved the conversation to Discord, where the child, after being groomed and manipulated, shared her home address. On April 13, 2025, Naval abducted the girl from her home in Taft, California. She was eventually found hundreds of miles away in his vehicle in Elk Grove, after a frantic, multi-agency search,” the law firm wrote.

After driving the girl to Elk Grove, Naval attempted to check into a hotel with the victim, but he was denied accommodations, according to the suit. The girl’s parents reported her missing to police. Officers later found the girl inside the man’s car while she was “in a state of distress.”

The alleged predator was arrested by police and is currently facing criminal charges.

“This case is horrifying, but it’s the natural consequence of how these platforms choose to operate,” said Alexandra Walsh, a partner at Anapol Weiss.

Roblox Corporation is headquartered in San Mateo, and Discord Inc. is headquartered in San Francisco.

The lawsuit claims that a “large number of predators” troll through the platforms. In Roblox’s 2023 annual report, the company reported an average of 68.5 million daily active users, with 21% under 9 years of age, and 21% from 9-12 years of age.

“Had Defendants implemented even the most basic system of age and identity verification, Plaintiff would never have engaged with this predator and never been harmed,” the suit states. “Defendants prioritize growing the number of users of their apps over child safety.”

A former Roblox employee is quoted in the lawsuit saying, “You have to make a decision, right? You can keep your players safe, but then it would be less of them on the platform. Or you just let them do what they want to do. And then the numbers all look good and investors will be happy.”

The lawsuit claims gross negligence and defectively designed apps are putting children at-risk of becoming the victims of online predators.

Attorneys said they are seeking to hold the tech companies accountable for creating and maintaining an online environment “where child predators thrive unchecked.”

In July, Roblox announced new tools to improve communication features depending on a user’s age.

One big change is the introduction of age estimation technology that helps confirm users’ ages. Roblox said it is investing in age estimation technology to help deliver developmentally appropriate experiences, and protect users from “those who might seek to do harm,” the company wrote. Another big change was Roblox’s decision to rename “friends” of users to “connections.”