Roblox Faces Scrutiny Over Hate Speech and Child Safety Concerns

Roblox, one of the world's most popular gaming platforms, bans hate speech. Users have found a way to spread it anyway.

Editor's note: This article contains descriptions and an image of hate speech found on the Roblox servers and might be triggering to some readers. In Roblox, one of the world's largest online gaming platforms, users join to play, create, and be themselves in a virtual world -- but some might be there for a more insidious purpose: to expose youth to hate speech. Players of "Spray Paint!" -- a popular game on Roblox, with over a billion visits, in which players skate and create graffiti art in a virtual skatepark setting -- can bypass moderation by spray painting hate messages across walls, ramps and other virtual game settings, a CBS News investigation found. CBS News documented dozens of swastikas and at least a dozen instances of hate speech targeting minority groups across Spray Paint! servers, which host multiplayer games. There are millions of games on Roblox where players can join servers to play with friends and strangers. What's happening in "Spray Paint!" is not uncommon -- nor surprising. Roblox currently has at least 18 active lawsuits pending nationwide due to inappropriate content found on its games, attorney Matthew Dolman, whose firm is representing individuals in cases against Roblox, told CBS News. Roblox said in an emailed statement to CBS News that its 24/7 moderation system closely monitors the platform, and that the company takes "swift action against any content or users found to be in violation." However, hate speech still appears in Roblox games, like Spray Paint, CBS News found. "Within three minutes of getting in there for the first time, I also saw a swastika," said Rachel Franz, the early childhood advocacy program director at the nonprofit Fairplay, which advocates for children's online safety. Hate can run rampant across various Roblox games. A group called Active Shooter Studios recreates school shootings at Columbine, Uvalde and Parkland and consistently evades efforts to take down recreations, the Anti-Defamation League found in an April report. A lawsuit filed this month alleges that Roblox hosted hundreds of Sean "Diddy" Combs-themed games, as well as more than 900 user accounts registered across Roblox with variations of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's name. "Roblox is fully aware that these experiences pervade its app, and it allows them to continue to exist unchecked despite the ability to control or eliminate them," the lawsuit alleges, and said the effects on children can be devastating. Last week, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a child protection lawsuit against the platform. "Roblox is overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritizes user growth, revenue, and profits over child safety," Murrill, a Republican, alleged in a press release. "Every parent should be aware of the clear and present danger posed to their children by Roblox so they can prevent the unthinkable from ever happening in their own home." In a statement to CBS News, Roblox said, "We share Attorney General Murrill's urgency to help keep kids safe because safety has always been our priority," adding that it looks forward to working with Murrill to help keep children safe. "We share the critically important goal of keeping kids safe online and any assertion otherwise is categorically untrue," Roblox's statement said. "We hold ourselves to the highest standard and work constantly to remove violative content and bad actors." Predators can troll Roblox, experts say, and other similar gaming platforms, to recruit young players for extremist groups or possibly sexual exploitation. Children and teens make up more than half of Roblox players, and about 40% of players are under the age of 13, according to a 2024 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Roblox attracts an average of 97.8 million daily active users. "If you are a predator, it's very clear that there are opportunities to access vulnerable folks on these platforms," Franz said. When children play the Spray Paint! game, they might see slurs targeting Black and Jewish people and phrases like "KKK" and "Jew" etched in graffiti on virtual brick walls. In one server, there were over 14 instances of this speech, CBS News found, as well as a reference to the "Third Reich." The phrase "I can't breathe," the words uttered by George Floyd, who died in 2020 in police custody by an officer later convicted of murder, was written across a virtual brick wall in one server. Some servers had graphic sexual drawings, and in another, there was an instance of suicidal language, CBS News found. Roblox's chat feature, available in some games, has a filtering system that prevents inappropriate content, like discriminatory speech, from being visible, but in Spray Paint! players can bypass filtering mechanisms by scrawling text via the game's paint feature as opposed to writing in the chat, where content is filtered. Users must enter their birthday when creating a Roblox account, but the platform doesn't require authentication, meaning adults can pose as children and children can pose as older than they actually are. Kids can converse with other players via the voice chat feature -- which has a minimum age requirement of 13 -- but also doesn't require age verification. Roblox says the company has implemented what it calls a "trusted flagger program," where trusted partners can report "terrorist content" in an effort to crack down on hate messages. Roblox also says on its website that content uploaded to be incorporated into games is evaluated in a multi-step review process to screen for child sexual abuse material and other inappropriate content. If it is identified as fodder for possible child sexual abuse, Roblox says it is automatically reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit organization focusing on finding missing children and reducing child exploitation. Roblox has developed an artificial intelligence system that the company says helped submit about 1,200 reports of potential attempts at child exploitation to NCMEC -- and last year, Roblox submitted 24,522 reports to NCMEC overall. Roblox says it has a human review team continuously evaluating flagged games and encourages users to report concerning activity. Spray Paint! players have the option to play in "safe mode," which allows them to only view art created by other players who are on their "friends" list in the app. A Roblox spokesperson told CBS News in an emailed statement that "while no system is perfect," the company has implemented safeguards including "restrictions on sharing personal information, links, and user-to-user image sharing, as well as content maturity [l]abels and parental controls." "We share with our community the critically important goal of keeping everyone safe online and ensuring users have positive experiences on Roblox that align with our strict Community Standards," the statement said, adding, "We continuously innovate to deter bad actors and have launched over 50 safety features since last year." Despite efforts to curb extremism and the targeting of young players, experts and CBS News found that protections remain easy to override. "There's a larger question of how you regulate and moderate something that is supposed to encourage creativity and freedom of expression, but actually ends up introducing some really unsafe and truly harmful and disgusting practices," Franz said. Allegations in several cases suggest Roblox has also been used to exploit teens and children. A Florida teenager was arrested in April for allegedly targeting children on Roblox, where he would demand child sexual abuse material over text messages or the messaging platform Discord. In Texas, a lawsuit filed in April alleges a 13-year-old girl was groomed and sexually exploited on Roblox and later, Discord. Roblox has recently been hit by a spate of lawsuits with similar claims. Dolman said his firm currently has seven cases and is investigating 400 more. Another firm filed a lawsuit earlier this month against Roblox and Discord representing over 400 people. A man in California was arrested in April on kidnapping and sexual misconduct charges in connection with a 10-year-old he is believed to have met through Roblox. Last year, a woman in Florida was arrested for allegedly using Roblox to instruct a 10-year-old to kill an infant by dropping the 2-month-old on a tile floor. The infant was seriously injured. When asked for a response to the lawsuits, Roblox said in an email that the company is "deeply troubled" by any incident that endangers its users, noting that safety is a top priority. "Roblox is committed to empowering parents and caregivers to help ensure a safe online experience for their children." Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced in April that he issued a subpoena to Roblox. "There are concerning reports that this gaming platform, which is popular among children, is exposing them to harmful content and bad actors," he said in a press release. "We are issuing a subpoena to Roblox to uncover how this platform is marketing to children and to see what policies they are implementing -- if any -- to avoid interactions with predators." Open-world games like Spray Paint!, where users can roam a virtual space in relative anonymity, can be a double-edged sword. Doris Chang, a psychologist and associate professor at New York University's Silver School of Social Work, says that these spaces can be affirming for queer youth. "They can be whoever they want. Gender fluidity is really common," Chang said, adding it can also put those groups at risk for exposure to hate speech and predatory individuals. "You're just interacting with people that you wouldn't normally interact with. It's completely wide open," Chang said. Chang said when children play a game like Spray Paint! without parental supervision, they may have to navigate problematic scenarios that might be confusing or upsetting. "It brings up the larger question about how much parents know about what their kids are getting exposed to online," she said. "Broadly speaking, Roblox is just one corner of the internet that our kids are navigating."

Roblox Banned a Creator for 'Hunting' Pedophiles -- And Critics Are Pissed

'Diversion': Judge Tears Apart Trump Admin Order to Unseal Ghislaine Maxwell Grand Jury Records After a popular YouTuber who entraps suspected sexual predators he contacts through Roblox was banned from the youth-targeted gaming platform this month, the company found itself defending its approach to moderation and user safety. But the furor over harm to minors hasn't been limited to the game's community. Now a Congressman, state officials, and families are demanding accountability and bringing legal actions, saying that Roblox has allowed its platform to become a festering hub for horrific child exploitation. Even Chris Hansen, best known as the host of the sting segment To Catch a Predator on Dateline NBC, is looking into stories of grooming and abuse on Roblox. "When I tell you what we've learned in terms of what these predators are getting these kids to do, it's shocking," Hansen tells Rolling Stone. Trying to expose and confront potential sex offenders in videos to be posted online -- a practice sometimes referred to as "pedophile hunting" -- is a booming genre of social media content. Among the prominent personalities in this space is a 22-year-old creator known as "Schlep" (his real first name is Michael, though he does not share his surname for privacy reasons), who says he was groomed by a contracted Roblox developer he met in the game while in his early teens. This individual, he says, exposed him to violent and pornographic content and engaged him in sexual conversations. According to statements from Schlep and his legal team, he eventually attempted suicide as a result, but afterward, when his mother contacted the company, they say they took no action against Schlep's abuser, only banning this person years later following a complaint from another developer. (The company has not commented on these claims.) The experience led Schlep to devote himself to outing would-be groomers and child abusers. With the help of a team of collaborators, he poses as underage "decoys" in virtual Roblox environments, responds to adult users who contact him, lets them make incriminating statements unprompted, then arranges real-world meetups where the individual in question is detained by law enforcement. He claims he has secured the arrest of six people over more than a year of pursuing what he calls "catches," with only one arrest not leading to prosecution. Two more cases are likely headed toward plea agreements, he says, though none of the alleged predators have yet to be convicted. Schlep tells Rolling Stone that it has always been his intention to work with Roblox to make the platform safer, but that the company has been a "brick wall" when he seeks to open up areas of cooperation. "I've made it clear since the beginning," he says. "After one of my first catches, I was like, 'Hey, I want to work with you. I was a victim of the platform. This is why I do it. And I would love some form of communication where I can just directly report these people to you, because their reports just don't work.' I have lost total faith in their moderation and report system. A lot of victims don't have every chat log. They don't have every voice call recorded. We have everything. We record the chat logs on mobile and scroll through them for the cops, and we give that to Roblox, too. It's enough for the cops where they're willing to charge and prosecute these people, but it's not enough for Roblox to take action on their platform." The older videos on Schlep's main YouTube account, which has well over a million subscribers, were often critical of Roblox, sometimes highlighting inappropriate games hosted on the platform that weren't being removed. It was not until he pivoted to predator hunting, however, that his videos began going massively viral, escalating the debate over whether Roblox does enough to protect its young user base (about 40 percent of its users are under 13). In the videos, which appear with copious disclaimers labeling the content "edutainment" and instructing viewers "DO NOT TRY THIS AT ALL," Schlep narrates as his ballcap-wearing Roblox avatar. He walks you through his chats -- read by voice actors -- with people who initiate explicit conversations in Discord servers associated with Roblox's adult-themed "Condo" sub-communities, conversations that continue in this vein after the suspect establishes that they are over 18 and the decoy has indicated that they are a minor. Once a suspect suggests a plan to meet in real life for sex, Schlep arranges a rendezvous, typically with another predator catcher sitting the person down in a public space to explain themselves before police arrive. As Schlep racked up arrests, he gained the mantle of an online folk hero, while Roblox was pilloried by viewers declaring that he had revealed crucial weaknesses in its safety protocols. Finally, on Aug. 7, under increasing pressure, Roblox issued a statement on how it collaborates with law enforcement to combat safety threats, touting their direct links with the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). It also clarified its policy against "vigilante groups," similar to policies for apps including Discord, TikTok, and Snapchat. "Unfortunately, there are cases of vigilante groups or individuals violating our policies to entrap users or otherwise self-police the platform," the statement noted. "Actions taken by vigilante groups increase the risk of more users being exposed to bad actors and can delay enforcement efforts by both Roblox and law enforcement." Roblox added that vigilantism could result in "removal and banning, where warranted." The next day, Schlep received a cease and desist notice from Roblox informing him that his account would be closed for violations related to his efforts to ensnare predators, including "simulated child endangerment conversations," waiting to report suspicious user behavior to Roblox, and directing users to move conversations off platform. The company instructed him to make no further attempt to access the platform, warning that this could result in legal repercussions. Schlep says he received no prior warnings about violating guidelines and that this is the sole direct communication he's ever received from the company. He retained the services of a law firm that has also brought multiple private lawsuits against Roblox for alleged harms to minors. Nationwide, more than a dozen of these suits are now proceeding, with several coming on the heels of Schlep's removal from the platform. In a recently filed Georgia case, a mother has alleged that her nine-year-old son was exposed to pornography and coerced into sending explicit images of himself to adults posing as children on the site. Other tech companies, including Meta, are regularly named as co-defendants in these cases -- again, because conversations veering toward inappropriate topics often migrate to other platforms, such as Instagram or Discord. Big Tech in general has come in for renewed scrutiny on child sexual exploitation, with roleplaying AI chatbots being another area of concern. But Roblox is now squarely in the crosshairs of many legal actions thanks to its very young user demographic. Schlep's followers were outraged at his ban, arguing that he had stepped in to address an issue that Roblox preferred to sweep under the rug. Roblox put out a followup statement on the risks raised by vigilantes, but it did little to stem the backlash. YouTuber KreekCraft posted a video explaining that he was quitting the Roblox Video Stars Program, the platform's paid partnership system for top creators, over the way Roblox had long handled criticism of its safeguards. "I feel like this decision isn't entirely based on the Schlep situation," he said, noting that the safety problems had been "bubbling for years" and that "Roblox just refuses to acknowledge, refuses to listen to the community." A week after Schlep's ban, the company unveiled stricter prohibitions on romantic and sexual content, announcing it would take action even against material that "implied" sexual activity and was rolling out new technology to detect "violative scenes." Perhaps this rang hollow after recent headlines about Roblox CEO David Baszucki floating the idea of the platform attracting more adult users by offering online dating services. A petition to remove Baszucki from his executive role has drawn more than 230,000 signatures to date. (Roblox did not immediately return a request for comment on it.) Schlep argues that the cleanup of explicit games is "surface level," and that "if you go any deeper, you will still see these games everywhere." Steven Vanderporten, an attorney representing Schlep, adds that such changes were woefully overdue. "They have had 20 years of these incidents happening, 20 years of notice, 20 years of opportunities to implement safeguards that they're now rolling out, and they're on a big PR campaign saying how much they're focused on safety features," he says. In Roblox, Vanderporten sees a company "covering up their tracks, trying to silence their critics." It's a common sentiment across social media. Since the cease and desist, Schlep and his supporters have pushed a #FreeSchlep campaign, with some staging virtual protests on his behalf within Roblox. (A handful of users claim to have received disciplinary warnings for displaying that slogan in the game, though the company denies this, with a spokesperson saying they "value open debate on the platform," and that any moderation "was likely linked to another policy violation.") The hashtag was taken up by Louisiana State Rep. Laurie Schlegel, who on X asserted that Roblox "has a history of refusing to take action against sexual predators" and makes far fewer reports to NCMEC than other apps. (NCMEC did not respond to requests for comment on the efficacy of Roblox's safety measures or policies against vigilante behavior.) These attacks came as Louisiana's attorney general, Liz Murrill, filed a blistering lawsuit against Roblox, describing it as "overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritizes user growth, revenue, and profits over child safety." Roblox defended itself against Murrill's claims in a press release. "Any assertion that Roblox would intentionally put our users at risk of exploitation is simply untrue," the company said. "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." Rod Breslau, co-founding editor of ESPN Esports and a consultant to companies in the gaming and streaming scene, observes that Roblox could have taken earlier coverage of their safety failures as a cue to bolster their safety practices well before Schlep's videos took off. Instead, they are now facing the full brunt of the political class. "Everyone in this industry knows that Roblox is a platform that has been primarily targeted to and played by minors," he says. "It should not take an independent Roblox YouTuber like Schlep doing vigilante-style To Catch a Predator takedowns to elicit the attention of a state attorney general -- and then and only then do Roblox come back with an official statement and a change in policy on sexual content on the platform. There have already been multiple deep investigative pieces by journalists on these issues and dozens of arrests of alleged predators! It's crazy." The outcry over Roblox's safety standards has also attracted the attention of Rep. Ro Khanna, who launched his own petition, titled "Stand with Us to Protect Kids and Save Roblox." It states that "powerful tech companies can do more" to stop child exploitation but only calls upon Roblox by name to bolster its protections. He says that more than 100,000 people have signed. "I've heard from creators and concerned parents about the urgent need for Roblox to do more to protect kids online," Khanna tells Rolling Stone. "These conversations have included stories of inappropriate interactions and algorithmic suggestions. I am collaborating with the community to listen and explore what actions can and must be taken to protect kids on the platform. I will continue my fight for accountability." As Roblox weathers this firestorm, the company is nevertheless holding firm in its anti-vigilante line to justify Schlep's ban. "Taking the law into your hands isn't safe in the real world and it's not safe online," a Roblox spokesperson tells Rolling Stone. "That's why we work with law enforcement to hold bad actors accountable. Many experts agree independent actors impersonating others and luring users to other platforms for sexually explicit conversations can never be safe. The company also shared quotes from police, attorneys, and academics describing how vigilante groups may interfere with investigations or employ methods that undermine criminal cases against offenders. They may obtain evidence through extralegal means that can't be used in prosecutions, for example. Online child safety expert Jessica Chalmers concurs that "vigilante predator hunting for YouTube content is dangerous" and can create more risk. "Turning something as serious as child safety into entertainment also doesn't sit right with me," she tells Rolling Stone. But Schlep says Roblox is distorting the nature of his content. "I don't view myself as a vigilante," he says. "'Vigilante' means that you are going ahead and taking the law into your own hands, right? It'd be like, if I slap the handcuffs on them -- or you see a lot of the predator catchers where they beat [suspects] up." He argues that the company has contradicted itself by arguing that he should notify them of suspected abuse before the police. "If you read their policy, it specifically says law enforcement is best positioned to take action related to this sort of stuff," he says, which is somewhat at odds with Roblox's insistence in their cease and desist letter that he should have reported suspicious behavior to them first. Schlep has spoken with Hansen about this very question, and says the famed predator catcher told him that he "always goes to law enforcement first," while "social media platforms come second." Hansen, as it happens, is currently at work on a documentary about child exploitation on Roblox, and shared last week on X that Schlep would have a hand in the project. He tells Rolling Stone that the news of their partnership has already brought more attention to the topic. "Just by announcing that we're doing it and collaborating with this young content creator, we've had millions and millions of views and thousands of comments and tips," he says. "It's difficult to keep up with of people who are reaching out to say, 'Here's what happened to my kid on Roblox.'" He has yet to interview leadership at the company but questions their decision to ban Schlep. "Instead of saying, 'Look, we're going to make you our young security emissary and have you help us,'" Hansen says, "they shut him down and banned him from the site, even though some of the cases he exposed were criminally prosecuted. So we will get his story." Internet child safety expert Fareedah Shaheed agrees that Roblox could be doing more to mitigate abuse, including working alongside motivated activists like Schlep. "Roblox does have a number of safety tools in place that are helpful, but there's still a long way to go in how they handle reports of grooming and how they engage with creators raising awareness of the problem," she says, noting that it's clear Schlep "genuinely cares about protecting kids." "I wish Roblox would find ways to work with creators like him to strengthen protections and build trust for both parents and children," Shaheed says, calling his ban "a step back" for the company. "As someone who was groomed in online games I loved, I know the solution isn't just more technology or placing blame," she explains. "It's bringing the online and offline village together to solve the bigger problems." Potential corporate reform will naturally take some time, and there's no telling if theoretical changes in Roblox policies would result in the overturning of Schlep's ban. In the meantime, the company may have to brace for additional lawsuits or investigations. Once politicians and parents have identified your product as a significant danger to kids, it can be all but impossible to rid the brand of that toxic reputation. Still, Shaheed notes that Roblox is hardly unique in struggling to ensure child safety. "At the end of the day, what we're seeing on Roblox isn't just a Roblox problem," she says. "These risks exist in any open-world, open-communication game, and tackling them requires collaboration across companies, experts, and communities." Chalmers says that in addition to making the most of parental controls, "explaining the risks" to children accessing internet platforms and letting them know "how to block and report anyone who makes them uncomfortable" is essential for their protection. "Ultimately, an educated child is the best filter we can give them," she says. "No setting can replace that." Of course, for many, the damage is already done, and it seems there's no shortage of victims who believe that Roblox could have prevented what happened to them. Devastating accounts of child abuse are tough for any tech company to answer. But the challenge is all the more pronounced when you're supposed to be supervising a safe place for kids to play.