St. Louis minor exploited on Roblox, lawsuit claims

ST. LOUIS - A lawsuit alleging child sexploitation on Roblox in the state of Missouri has been filed.

Litigation firms Cooper Masterman, Dolman Law Group and Wallace Miller filed the complaint in St. Louis Circuit Court on Wednesday, Aug. 20, on behalf of a St. Louis mother and her daughter.

"In no world should an adult be able to speak to a child that's unrelated to them. That goes on every day on the Roblox gaming platform," attorney Matthew Dolman said.

Dolman says he is now involved in seven cases against Roblox and is investigating several more.

The suit alleges that the company Roblox is "accountable for creating a breeding ground for predators and enabling the sexual exploitation of a 13-year-old girl."

The complaint says that the 13-year-old, who frequently played on the Roblox app, encountered another user who was allegedly posing as a minor. This interaction led to intense grooming, such as the minor sending over explicit pictures of herself to the user, according to the complaint.

"What winds up happening is they send explicit images to the child and expect the child to share back explicit images, but they think they're talking to a minor. The child takes photos of themselves and sends them back, and low and behold, you're talking to a sexual predator," Dolman said.

Also within the complaint, litigators alleged that Roblox "prioritizes financial gain over child welfare." The filing alleges that Roblox instills an unfounded sense of safety in guardians, but in reality, the app makes children vulnerable when it comes to encountering potential predators.

“There have never been sufficient safety measures and protocols in place, and children are suffering unimaginably. Without these, Roblox opens the virtual door to sexual predators and convicted offenders posing as children with purely evil intentions," said Matthew Dolman, principal of Dolman Law Group.

According to preliminary findings from the firm, games titled "JeffEpsteinSupporter," “Escape to Epstein Island,” and "Diddy Party" were found on the Roblox app.

The complaint also alleged that Roblox is "aware of those experiences and does nothing to stop them, playing a direct role in enabling a culture where sexual exploitation is normalized in the underdeveloped and impressionable minds of children."

Since the filing of the lawsuit, Roblox issued a statement to FOX 2 that reads in part:

"We are deeply troubled by any incident that endangers our users, and safety is a top priority. We dedicate substantial resources, including advanced technology and 24/7 human moderation, to help detect and prevent inappropriate content and behavior, including attempts to direct users off platform, where safety standards and moderation may be less stringent than ours. While no system is perfect.

Roblox has implemented rigorous safeguards, including restrictions on sharing personal information, links, and user-to-user image sharing, and prohibiting sexual conversations. We also partner with law enforcement and leading child safety organizations worldwide to combat the sexual exploitation of children,” a spokesperson from Roblox wrote.

AAdditionally, Roblox informed FOX 2 about its commitment to empowering parents and caregivers in ensuring a safe online experience for minors. Resources surrounding parental controls and safety on Roblox can be found here.

Roblox also said that it's working to launch an AI-powered system called Sentinel that can detect child endangerment interactions.

The firm says Jane Doe's lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages from the defendant, citing mental health issues, anxiety and loss of trust

Porscha Thorpe with the Children advocacy center (CAC) says they are seeing more criminals take advantage of online platforms. The CAC offers free internet safety lessons for parents and also speaks to kids as young as third grade.

"We know that kids like to get on games and apps, so we never want to tell them no. We always tell them to always check with their safe, trusted adult at home," Thorpe said.

This lawsuit, so far, is the first complaint filed in the state of Missouri. Roblox has not filed a response to the lawsuit in court.