{"id":39869,"date":"2025-11-07T17:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/39869\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T17:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:54:08","slug":"texas-sues-roblox-for-allegedly-failing-to-protect-children-on-its-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/39869\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas sues Roblox for allegedly failing to protect children on its platform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas AG Ken Paxton is accusing Roblox<\/a> of \u201cputting pixel pedophiles and profits over the safety of Texas children,\u201d alleging in a lawsuit filed this week that it is \u201cflagrantly ignoring state and federal online safety laws while deceiving parents about the dangers of its platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit<\/a> accuses Roblox of deceptive trade practices for misleading parents and users about its safety features, and for creating a common nuisance by harboring a space \u201cthat has become a habitual destination for child predators engaging in grooming and child sexual exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit\u2019s examples focus on instances of children who have been abused by predators they met via Roblox, and the activities of groups like 764<\/a> which have used online platforms to identify and blackmail victims into sexually explicit acts or self harm. According to the suit, Roblox\u2019s parental controls push only began after a number of lawsuits, and a report released last fall by the short seller Hindenburg<\/a> that said its \u201cin-game research revealed an X-rated pedophile hellscape, exposing children to grooming, pornography, violent content and extremely abusive speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

In August, Louisiana filed a similar lawsuit<\/a>, alleging that Roblox \u201cpermitted and perpetuated an online environment in which child predators thrive.\u201d A couple of months later, the state of Kentucky also sued Roblox<\/a>, calling it \u201ca hunting ground for child predators.\u201d Last month, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier subpoenaed Roblox<\/a> over similar allegations. It\u2019s not just states suing Roblox, either. Numerous families and Roblox players<\/a> have also sued the platform for alleged abuse, such as the cases detailed in Texas\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Eric Porterfield, Senior Director of Policy Communications at Roblox, responded to the lawsuit in a statement to The Verge, saying, \u201cWe are disappointed that, rather than working collaboratively with Roblox on this industry-wide challenge and seeking real solutions, the AG has chosen to file a lawsuit based on misrepresentations and sensationalized claims.\u201d He added, \u201cWe have introduced over 145 safety measures on the platform this year alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roblox reported in September<\/a> that it has over 111 million daily active users, many of whom are children. Earlier this year, Roblox announced plans to roll out age verification<\/a> using IDs and facial scans, along with an AI system<\/a> intended to \u201cdetect early signals of potential child endangerment.\u201d<\/p>\n

It echoes similar changes on social media platforms like Discord, which also began rolling out age verification<\/a> this year and has even been cited in some of the same lawsuits filed against Roblox, including one case<\/a> involving a 13-year-old from Texas. Social media platforms have often successfully used Section 230<\/a> to shield themselves from liability for individual users\u2019 actions on their platforms, however \u2014 a barrier this Roblox suit, like others against the company, will face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas AG Ken Paxton is accusing Roblox of \u201cputting pixel pedophiles and profits over the safety of Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[24522,223,8002,302,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-39869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-gaming","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-policy","11":"tag-tech","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39869","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=39869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}