Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a lawsuit against popular online gaming platform Roblox over its lack of protection for child users on Thursday, Aug. 14.
The lawsuit alleges that Roblox has failed to implement strong safety protocols for children, putting them at risk of interacting with predators online.
Roblox is also being accused of creating a platform that allows millions of users to easily create accounts with fake birthdays.
Louisiana Attorney General sues Roblox over child safety protocols
The lawsuit asserts that Roblox's lack of age verification when creating accounts allows adults to pose as children, and children are able to bypass controls intended for users under 13.
A news conference was held on Thursday Aug. 14, where Murrill discussed Roblox and reasons for suing the platform.
"Roblox has and continues to facilitate the distribution of child sexual abuse material and the sexual exploitation of Louisiana's children," said Murrill during the news conference.
How Roblox lures sexual predators
Murrill says that, while Roblox is the number one gaming site for children and teens, it's also the number one site for sex predators.
"Roblox fails to implement basic safety controls and to protect child users from predators. Roblox knowingly and intentionally fails to provide notice to parents and child users of its extreme dangers. And it created, curated and perpetuated an online environment where child sex predators thrive, unite, hunt and victimize kids," said Murrill during the new conference.
The 42-page lawsuit holds that a number of sexually explicit "experiences" have occurred on Roblox, such as “Escape to Epstein Island,” “Diddy Party” and “Public Bathroom Simulator Vibe,” NBC News reported.
"It's very dangerous what they're perpetuating. They know it, and they have made choices to not use the tools that they could be using to protect children and they've done that for profit,"
The lawsuit also alleges unfair trade practices, negligence and unjust enrichment. While the suit doesn't specify damages, it does seek a permanent order that would bar Roblox from violating Louisiana's unfair trade practices act or promoting its safety features as adequate, NBC News reported.
"We're going to take it out of the profit and we're going to also do whatever we can to make sure their structural controls put in place to protect our kids," said Murrill during the conference regarding the lawsuit.
Roblox's response to Louisiana lawsuit
"Roblox as a policy does not comment on pending litigation. However, the company would like to address erroneous claims and misconceptions about our platform, our commitment to safety, and our overall safety track record," reads a response statement released by Roblox on Aug. 15.
Roblox says that the platforms has rigorous safety features built in, and that its policies are purposely stricter than those found on social networks and other user-generated content platforms.
"Any assertion that Roblox would intentionally put our users at risk of exploitation is simply untrue. No system is perfect and bad actors adapt to evade detection, including efforts to take users to other platforms, where safety standards and moderation practices may differ. We continuously work to block those efforts and to enhance our moderation approaches to promote a safe and enjoyable environment for all users," said Roblox in its response.
Roblox expressed in the response that it dedicates substantial resources to help detect and prevent inappropriate content and behavior through community standards, restricted experiences, a Trust & Safety Team and a Roblox Sentinel, which is an AI-powered system designed to help detect child endangerment interactions.
What is Roblox?
Roblox is a massive online game platform and creation system that allows users to design and play games created by other users, with user-generated experiences spanning across various genres.
Users can also customize avatars, interact with others, as well as create and sell virtual items via the platform's virtual currency, Robux.
Presley Bo Tyler is a reporter for the Louisiana Deep South Connect Team for Gannett/USA Today. Find her on X @PresleyTyler02 and email at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Is Louisiana Attorney General suing Roblox? What to know about lawsuit
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