The “let’s sue Roblox” bandwagon has grown a little bit bigger as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that he’s filed a lawsuit against the company for “flagrantly ignoring state and federal online safety laws while deceiving parents about the dangers of its platform.”
“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 said in a 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 and unrelenting force of the law.”
The lawsuit claims Roblox “has marketed itself as the world’s safest and most family-friendly online gaming platform for kids,” but in reality, it “is a sprawling and unregulated digital playground that is overrun by predators and saturated with sexual content.” It also accuses the company of encouraging “compulsive purchases” with its Robux in-game currency, which allegedly makes it easier for predators to target children: “Rather than being lured by candy, modern-day predators have lured children with Robux.”
The Texas lawsuit follows similar legal action taken by Louisiana and Kentucky, as well as a criminal investigation launched by the state of Florida. It bears many of the same hallmarks, including a slate of images from various Roblox “experiences” featuring Nazi and KKK avatars, what appears to be a naked sex party on a boat, and “examples of Roblox games modeled after Diddy’s sex trafficking ventures.”
Like those previous lawsuits, it alleges that Roblox “continues to falsely and aggressively market itself as an ‘industry leader’ when it comes to child safety,” and that the technology Roblox has trumpeted as central to its moderation efforts “has proven grossly inadequate and insufficient to protect children.”
Roblox’s most recent “Safety Snapshot” update, posted November 5, highlights ongoing efforts “to continue to innovate around safety.” This includes open-sourcing a version of its Roblox PII Classifier, which “has significantly enhanced our ability to detect and block attempts to violate our strict policies around sharing personally identifiable information (PII),” along with changes in how it handles user-reported incidents of abuse.
The update also provided information on existing partnerships with “key stakeholders,” including—ironically, given all the state attorneys general who are suing Roblox—the Partnership for Youth Online Safety recently established with the Attorney General Alliance (AGA). In October, the AGA praised Roblox for “its readiness to collaborate directly with policymakers and respond to community concerns.”
I have reached out to Roblox for comment and will update this article if I receive a reply.
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roblox-must-do-more-to-protect-kids-from-sick-and-twisted-freaks-texas-attorney-general-says-as-he-sues-roblox-for-putting-pixel-pedophiles-and-profits-ahead-of-kids/
