On Thursday, February 19, Roblox was sued by Los Angeles County for allegedly failing to guard the children that play it from predators. A press release from the county argues 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.”
The release continues with a statement attributed directly to county counsel Dawyn R. Harrison, who filed the suit. “This is not about a minor lapse in safety,” said Harrison. “It is about a company that gives pedophiles powerful tools to prey on innocent and unsuspecting children. The trauma that results is horrific, from grooming, to exploitation, to actual assault. This needs to stop.” The complaint can be read in full here.
This is not the first time Roblox has caught this sort of heat. A class action suit back in 2023 sought to combat a “misperception that Roblox is safe” for children, saying widespread sexual content and grooming are serious issues in the game.
In one harrowing case, a pedophile abducted and sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl after grooming her via Roblox. Numerous states have sued Roblox over child safety concerns, including Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas.
While the Roblox Corporation has consistently pushed back on the notion that it runs, as one research firm called it, a “pedophile hellscape,” and improved its safety features over time, it’s also done plenty to reverse any gains. Last year, Roblox CEO David Baszucki proposed the game make room for a dating hub despite its overwhelmingly young playerbase.
A few months later, he spoke a tense, baffling interview with the New York Times and dropped the megaton soundbite that he thought of Roblox’s child predation issue “not necessarily just as a problem, but an opportunity as well.”
As far as this specific suit is concerned, Roblox responded with a statement issued to L.A.’s Fox11. “We strongly dispute the claims in this lawsuit and will defend against it vigorously. Roblox is built with safety at its core, and we continue to evolve and strengthen our protections every day,” the statement reads. “There is no finish line when it comes to protecting kids, and while no system can be perfect, our commitment to safety never ends.”
The scale of this issue is hard to fathom. Players spent well over 10 billion hours in the game last year alone, accounting for two thirds of the gaming industry’s growth outside of China in 2025. Roblox’s engagement stats rival Steam and dwarf the likes of Epic and Battle.net. At least one industry analyst reckons that huge swathes of Gen Alpha gamers may not ever “grow out of” Roblox.
