this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
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The County of Los Angeles filed suit today against social media gaming platform Roblox alleging that the platform failed to protect children from predatory behavior. The lawsuit alleges that while Roblox markets itself as a safe digital space for creativity, it is in reality an unsafe online environment that has become a breeding ground for predators.

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[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

The parasite predator class

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 17 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

OK, and Discord, Facebook, etc? Or do they just lobby better?

[–] Taldan@lemmy.world 8 points 2 hours ago

The difference is Discord and Facebook don't allow users under 13. Roblox does

About the only internet consumer protections that exist in the US are for under-13

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 26 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

Most games are games with a chat feature.

ROBLOX IS A CHATROOM WITH A GAMES FEATURE.

  • It’s a chatroom where 60% of the user base is under the age of 16 and 40% is under 12.

  • Grooming happens on Roblox. Predators move that conversation to places Discord which is where the crimes happen.

I am an adult who helped a kid that was the victim of online predators.

When talking to your kids about online safety, come up with a plan just like you might for a fire. Make sure they know what to do when something makes them uncomfortable and make sure you identify a 3rd party adult that you trust and your kid feels safe talking to, maybe a close family friend or an aunt/uncle.

That last part is how I got involved. I don’t have my own kids, but I knew a kid that felt more comfortable talking to me about that stuff than to his parents.

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 7 points 3 hours ago

That last part is how I got involved. I don’t have my own kids, but I knew a kid that felt more comfortable talking to me about that stuff than to his parents.

doing this is probably an effective safety feature for any community to have. if you're afraid your parents will freak out and ban you from electronics forever you won't go to them for help. and not all parents are good parents.

[–] vithigar@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 hours ago

Likewise I'm a "safe third party adult" for my niece but the prospect of ever actually needing to act in that capacity is terrifying.

[–] SalamenceFury@piefed.social 57 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (11 children)

As much as I think this is all terrible and that Roblox SHOULD answer for some of this shit, the fact of the matter is, PARENTS ARE NOT TEACHING KIDS HOW TO BE SAFE IN THE INTERNET. They just throw a fucking tablet or phone or console or PC screen in front of their eyes and refuse to do ANYTHING resembling parenting, and when their kid inevitably gets groomed they blame the platform and ask for daddy government to do their parenting for them and ask for things like age verification, which at least on Discord is literally being used to profile people criticizing the Trump administration and ICE.

Set parental controls, teach kids to not trust strangers and give them basic internet safety tips, and none of this shit will ever happen. Don't sign away the rights of other adults because you're a terrible fucking parent.

[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Yeah, agree with everything you said. I let my kids play Roblox. I play with them sometimes, been playing some silly Shawarma game, it freaks them out.

So far, the biggest thing we talk about is this desire of every game to enter your wallet, and I tell them that a game shouldn't be asking you for money, and now they both get annoyed at games that ask for money. I like to think I've created a safe environment for them to play in, and when the environment becomes something else, they ask me about it.

So mainly right now the worst that happens is the game is bullshit and they get mad, and I say hey, this game is bullshit (in more PG language), and we move on.

I firmly believe that prohibition just leads to curiosity. I think it's impossible to insulate them from shit these days, so I'll be part of their exposure, and hopefully I can help them learn.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 3 points 3 hours ago

Social media has muddied the water since I was a kid but I was raw dogging the Internet mostly unsupervised since I was in 5th grade and ran into all sorts of shit. Knowing not to give up any personal information about myself was all I really needed to feel safe. It was never something I even considered doing. I still don't have any social media with my identity other than a very outdated and minimal LinkedIn. Not sure how a kid could take that advice seriously from their parents who've been blasting anything and everything about them all over social media since they were born though.

[–] morto@piefed.social 4 points 4 hours ago

PARENTS ARE NOT TEACHING KIDS

Unfortunately, it always has been like this for everything

[Sad astronaut gun meme]

[–] Ancalagon@lemmy.world 9 points 7 hours ago

Facts. Feels good to subsidize parents and have their shitty kids be the reasons to take my rights.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 2 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Set parental controls

This is what they are suing about.

Don't sign away the rights of other adults

What rights do you think are being "signed away" in this lawsuit about Roblox not providing functional parental controls and moderation?

I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what is actually happening here.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Probably talking about invasive shit like what discord just did.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 1 points 3 hours ago

Which they are already doing in the shittiest way possible, and is only a small part of the problem the lawsuit notes.

Which is why I've been asking, they can't answer because they dont know what they are talking about, they are concerned about a single (almost tangential) element of the problem - which Roblox already is doing, and only because they keep getting sued for catering to predators.

[–] SalamenceFury@piefed.social 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Because those parents are pushing for age verification stuff, that has already been confirmed by hackers to be sent straight to the DOJ and ICE to make a database and link people's internet profiles to their real names. With possibly the intention to either arrest people for criticizing ICE, or deporting people they DEEM to be illegals.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Thats not the only means of age verification.

Do you know how they are doing verification currently? Because I bet you won't like it.

Mandatory facial verification, processed by AI. This was the response made by Roblox to them being sued over having nonfunctional controls for parents, and doing nothing about the predators on their platform.

So I'll ask again - what rights do you think are being taken away here?

Edit: Just going to add this bit here.

Tech journalist and former CNET senior writer Casey Newton asked what Baszucki (CEO) thinks of the "problem of predators" on the platform

The response:

We think of it not necessarily just as a problem, but an opportunity as well.

This is not an "age verification" thing. This is a platform catering to predators.

[–] SalamenceFury@piefed.social 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Did you not read the Twitter thread? The facial verification is done by OpenAI and shared with Palantir, the DOJ, and ICE. Yes, including Roblox's. What makes you think the DOJ would NOT try to build a profile on someone going through age verification who's brown enough to be considered an "illegal" and possibly detain or deport them if they criticize ICE?

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 4 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Did you not read the part where I pointed out that it was Roblox who implemented that by choice?

That this is how Roblox decided to try and avoid lawsuits for catering to predators?

That these measures, as noted in the suit, do absolutely nothing and are easily defeated?

That the issue goes far beyond their own decision to implement this form of age verification?

I have the same question and you still have not answered, youre answering a question that I didnt ask that is unrelated.

What rights are being signed away by this lawsuit?

Edit: about/avoid autocorrect shenanigans.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Calling Roblox’s actions voluntary is misleading to the point of maliciousness.

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 2 points 3 hours ago

They did it to avoid suits, which is what I said.

Suggesting its anything other than avoiding consequences (to their profits) is misleading to the point of maliciousness.

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[–] AgentBoom@lemmy.world -1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Since the chat update released in January, communication in Roblox is a big mess. AI wrongly detects adults as children and vice versa, the only 100% safe way is through ID. Plus, there are kids asking their parents to verify for them. A lot of players are in the wrong age group, so you don't really know how old are the people you're talking to. Ironically, all of this pushes more players to use messaging apps like Discord –where you can chat with fewer restrictions, excellent for predators– instead of the native chat. But you can still enjoy games peacefully if you never talk or prefer single player experiences.

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 17 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Roblox literally monetized unsupervised access to children as a premium feature.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 3 points 7 hours ago

"What if we took Club Penguin but made it easy for pedos to communicate with children?" - David Baszucki, probably

[–] errer@lemmy.world 8 points 7 hours ago

multimillion dollar

They had a gross profit last year of 3.8 billion. They don’t give a shit about this.

[–] Eternal192@anarchist.nexus 124 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

They protect pedophiles, one youtuber was getting in touch with them and would then forward their information to the police and Roblox banned him, so fuck Roblox.

[–] Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 27 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Can't interfere with that revenue growth

Shareholders need to be held accountable for the unethical, immoral and illegal activities of their owned businesses. Until there is a financial incentive for business to be run ethically, morally and legally for the shareholders, nothing will ever change. It is perhaps the biggest problem with capitalism today.

[–] kiterios@lemmy.world 9 points 7 hours ago

Fiduciary duty is just white-collar-washed sociopathy.

[–] spookedintownsville@lemmy.world 10 points 10 hours ago

Free schlep

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 7 hours ago

Who do you think spends money on roblox? Kids? Fuck no, it's the pedos and their totally "E for everyone" ~~games~~ experiences and cosmetics

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago

This and the lawsuits against Meta, TikTok, and others are inevitable.

In the absence of essential government regulation, even in the face of significant adverse consequences for young people and their welfare, civil lawsuits will have to be enough to force these shitty companies to act appropriately.

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