{"id":258382,"date":"2026-04-20T20:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/258382\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T20:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:49:10","slug":"texas-speaker-targets-regulating-roblox-in-legislative-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/258382\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas speaker targets regulating Roblox in legislative session"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows on Monday targeted Roblox for alleged child endangerment, after learning the platform offered a simulation of the 2022 Uvalde mass shooting. <\/p>\n

Burrows instructed lawmakers to study ways to strengthen child safety and accountability for virtual gaming, singling out Roblox, an online platform and community where people can play and design their own games<\/a>. In a news release, he call Roblox a place where \u201cexploitative content and nominal safeguards are exposing Texas children to ongoing endangerment.\u201d The charge adds to a list of policy priorities<\/a> Burrows has focused the House around ahead of next year\u2019s legislative session.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurning an unspeakable act of violence, whose scars remain across the Uvalde community, into entertainment is a profound moral failure,\u201d Burrows said in a statement. \u201cThe State of Texas demands accountability \u2014 not a system that profits from violence and provocation while exposing young minds to hateful content. Lawmakers cannot stand by while a platform aimed at children enables and monetizes this kind of abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Roblox<\/a> in November for allegedly exposing children to sexually explicit content and exploitation. The company has faced a flurry of lawsuits<\/a> from states and local governments, including Los Angeles County, alleging child endangerment.<\/p>\n

Burrows instructed the House State Affairs Committee<\/a> to evaluate \u201ccontent moderation practices, enforcement gaps and the adequacy of existing child safety protections, noting that nearly 40% of Roblox\u2019s 144 million daily users are under the age of 13.<\/p>\n

He directed lawmakers to recommend proposals to \u201cenforce accountability that<\/p>\n

are unconstrained by federal preemption or immunity defenses,\u201d assess the possible civil and criminal liability of third-party content developers on platforms like Roblox, study the potential applicability of age verification and parental consent laws to gaming platforms, and \u201cdetermine the extent to which platforms prioritize user engagement over safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKayla Guo covers state politics and government. Before joining the Tribune, she covered Congress for The New York Times as a reporting fellow based in Washington, D.C. Kayla has also covered transportation…\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Kayla Guo\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1865,27,29,1862,293,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-258382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-dustin-burrows","9":"tag-texas","10":"tag-texas-headlines","11":"tag-texas-house-of-representatives","12":"tag-texas-legislature","13":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}