Judge rules against online platform Roblox, keeping alleged abuse case in the public eye

(NEW YORK)- — A father’s lawsuit against the online gaming platform Roblox will remain in the public eye after a California judge denied the company’s attempt to force the dispute into a private resolution process.

While the ruling issued last week by California Superior Court Judge Nina Shapirshteyn applies only to one case in San Mateo County, attorneys representing dozens of families view the ruling as a legal precedent that opens the door for other victims to pursue their lawsuits against the company through the judicial system.

Roblox, launched in 2006, has been at the center of recent controversy, with some parents alleging that the platform has been used to help facilitate child sexual exploitation and grooming. The company is facing over 35 lawsuits, with one law firm telling ABC News that it is investigating thousands of child sexual exploitation and abuse claims.

Roblox had nearly 83 million average daily active users in 2024, according to its financial reports. It reported $3.6 billion in revenue last year.

The attorneys general of Louisiana and Kentucky have filed lawsuits against the company, and recently Florida’s attorney general subpoenaed Roblox for information about its age verification and chat moderation policies.

The company has consistently responded to the lawsuits and allegations by stating that protecting children is a priority and announcing investments in safety measures, including artificial intelligence age verification.

“We are deeply troubled by any allegations about harms to children online and are committed to setting the industry standard for safety,” a spokesperson for Roblox told ABC News. “To protect our users, we have rigorous, industry-leading policies, including limiting chat for younger users and employing advanced filters designed to block the sharing of personal information. Roblox also does not allow users to share images or videos. We also collaborate closely with law enforcement.”

The Roblox spokesperson told ABC News the company disagrees with the ruling from the California judge and plans to appeal.

‘The gateway to all of this happening’
Steve, the father whose lawsuit prompted last week’s ruling in California, told ABC News that in 2023, he created a Roblox account for his son who was 13 years old at the time.

A year later, Steve — who asked ABC News not to publish his last name out of concern for his son’s safety — made a devastating discovery. He says he found messages on his son’s phone from an individual who, according to civil court documents, found his son on a children’s game in the online platform and initiated contact, despite him and his son not being “friends” on the platform.

According to Steve and court records, the perpetrator, who had initially posed as a 16-year-old, moved communication off of Roblox and onto Discord, a separate communication platform. Once there, he allegedly began exploiting Steve’s son by offering Robux gift cards — Roblox’s in-game currency — in exchange for explicit images and videos.

The messages Steve found allegedly included direct threats after his son failed to show up to an arranged in-person meeting, with the accused predator reminding the teenager that he knew his New Jersey address, according to the complaint.

“He had our home address, what school he went to, his phone number, everything,” Steve said.

Steve told ABC News he immediately contacted local police who later told him that the man who messaged his son was a known predator who was facing charges in another case for sexually exploiting another child. According to the complaint, authorities believe the same individual similarly exploited at least 26 other children using online platforms.

In February, Steve filed a lawsuit against Roblox and Discord, alleging the companies misled him and other parents about the platforms’ safety and features, leading directly to his son’s “sexual exploitation and abuse.”

In a statement to ABC News, a Discord spokesperson said the company is “committed to safety” and said it requires all users to be 13 to use their platform. 

“We maintain strong systems to prevent the spread of sexual exploitation and grooming on our platform and also work with other technology companies and safety organizations to improve online safety across the internet,” the spokesperson said.

“I’ve traditionally kept myself as a ‘helicopter parent,’ so I did all my research,” Steve said. “I did my best to enable every parental control I could find, and a lot of them are pretty confusing, but I tried my best to keep him safe online and teach him as best I could, and it still happened.”

Steve told ABC News that Roblox “was the gateway to all of this happening” because that’s where “all the conversations started.”

‘Everyone deserves a day in court’
Alexandra Walsh, the attorney representing Steve and about a dozen other clients suing the company, said Roblox’s response to the lawsuit was to file a motion to compel arbitration — a private, out-of-court process where claims are settled confidentially by a third party.

“[It was] a motion to silence this family, to prevent this family from presenting what happened to them to a judge and jury, and instead put it into a secret rigged system,” Walsh told ABC News. “Roblox has followed suit in multiple other cases … they’ve either filed similar motions to compel arbitration, or made very clear that they intend to do so.”

In court filings, Roblox has said the dispute must be settled confidentially, because Steve, when he signed up for Roblox, was provided notice of the Terms of Service and the Arbitration Agreement mandating that any dispute “will be subject only to binding arbitration.”

The company said in filings that their arbitration agreement is “consumer friendly and cost friendly.”

Last week, Judge Shapirshteyn rejected Roblox’s motion to compel arbitration.

Walsh told ABC News the company has a right to defend itself, but it should do so “in the light of day so the public can see, and so that a jury made up of citizens of this country can decide if they’re liable or not.”

Steve told ABC News the ruling was “reassuring.”

“Everyone deserves a day in court, but Roblox and these companies don’t want that to happen,” Steve said. “They want to keep things quiet.”

Steve told ABC News that his family moved across the country because they did not feel safe in their home.

“It was an eye-opening experience,” he said. “Predators aren’t down at your local park anymore. They’re not hanging out in the dark city places … it has become just so easy for them to come online and pretend to be somebody that they’re not.”

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