‘Makes children easy prey for pedophiles’: North Carolina mother files lawsuit against Roblox

HIGH POINT, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A lawsuit has been filed in North Carolina against the online gaming app, Roblox, after a 10-year-old child was reportedly sexually exploited through the app.

The 84-page lawsuit, filed Aug. 21 in Guilford County, was filed on behalf of a mother and daughter from High Point.

The lawsuit reads: “This action seeks to hold Roblox accountable for recklessly and deceptively
operating its business in a way that led to the sexual exploitation of Plaintiff.”

According to the complaint, the child, known as Jane Doe N.L., was approximately 6 years old when she first started playing on Roblox. At age 10, she was allegedly targeted by an online predator who began to groom her and eventually coerced her into sending explicit images of herself in exchange for the game’s virtual currency.

The complaint states: “Plaintiff was targeted on Roblox by a predator who posed as a fellow child and exploited Plaintiff’s age and vulnerability to build a false emotional connection with her by
promising friendship and connection.”

It goes on to say: “Defendant portrays its app as a safe and appropriate place for children to play. In reality, and as Defendant well knows, the design of its app makes children easy prey for pedophiles, and Defendant had no appropriate safeguards to ensure that children were in fact safe or that predators were screened.”

Roblox is marketed as the number one gaming site for kids and teens.

According to the current website, Roblox “won’t allow language that is used to harass, discriminate, incite violence, threaten others, or used in a sexual context.” Roblox touts a “stringent safety system and policies,” which include its “expertly trained team with thousands of members dedicated to protecting our users and monitoring for inappropriate content”; its “safety review of every uploaded image, audio, and video file, using a combination of review by a large team of human moderators and machine detection before they become available on our platform”; and its chat filters for inappropriate content, which “are even stricter” for children under 13 and “include any potentially identifiable personal information, slang etc.”

However, the complaint alleges Roblox staff prioritized growth over the safety of its underage users.

As one former Roblox employee explained in describing the company’s approach to child safety, “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.”

Roblox does not require users to verify their age upon sign-up, allowing them to easily represent themselves as being younger or older than their actual age.

Although Roblox states that children must have parental permission before signing up for an account, nothing prevents them from creating their own accounts and playing on Roblox.

A report referenced in the lawsuit confirmed that Roblox actively hosted over 600 “Diddy” games, with titles like “Survive Diddy,” “Run from Diddy Simulator,” and “Diddy Party,” which appear to recreate reported incidents involving the music mogul Sean Combs, publicly known as “Diddy.”

This report also revealed that Roblox permitted more than 900 Roblox accounts displaying variations of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s name, such as “JeffEpsteinSupporter,” whose account Roblox actively permitted to be openly engaged in children’s games.

Roblox also allowed games like “Escape to Epstein Island” — a title that directly references one of the locations where, for years, Epstein trafficked minors and other nonconsenting individuals so he and others could sexually and physically abuse them.

A recent investigative report referenced in the lawsuit found that a basic search for “adult” in Roblox revealed a group with 3,334 members “openly trading child pornography and soliciting sexual acts from minors.”

The lawsuit notes that many predators do not even hide their intentions, roaming Roblox with
usernames like “@Igruum_minors,” “@RavpeTinyK1dsJE,” and “@EarlBrianBradley.”

The complaint also highlights several other instances in which Roblox’s app enabled predators to target children.

For example, in 2024, 24 men in New Jersey were also charged with soliciting sex from minors as part of a sting operation, where the New Jersey State Police Lieutenant specifically called out Roblox as a place where “individuals are posing as someone else in order to gain someone’s trust.”

This is not the first lawsuit against Roblox, either. A family of another 10-year-old in Louisiana also filed a lawsuit in August, claiming Roblox and Discord did not protect their daughter from being abducted by a predator.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has consistently named Roblox to its “Dirty Dozen” list — an annual campaign exposing companies that facilitate, enable, or profit from sexual exploitation.

The complaint claims: “Had Defendant implemented even the most basic system of screening or age and identity verification, as well as effective parental controls, Plaintiff never would have interacted with this predator and never would have suffered the harm that she did.”

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff is requesting monetary damages, medical expenses reimbursed, attorneys’ fees reimbursed, and a trial by jury.

“Her innocence has been snatched from her forever. Tragically, what happened to her is far from an isolated event,” the complaint states.