Child safety on Roblox
The safety of children on Roblox, a multiplayer game platform managed by the American company Roblox Corporation, has been the subject of much debate and controversy. Concerns include exposure to sexual content, sexual predation, political extremism, and financial exploitation, which have led to some countries banning the platform., the corporation is facing several lawsuits in the United States for alleged failures to protect children.
Around 40% of Roblox players are under 13 years old, and Roblox Corporation stated in 2020 that half of all American children used the platform. Child exploitation groups such as 764 and CVLT have operated on Roblox to groom children, and at least 30 people have been arrested since 2018 in the United States for abducting or sexually abusing children they had groomed on the platform. Some users have taken to online vigilantism to catch potential child predators; Roblox Corporation has faced significant controversy after taking legal action against some of these users. Additionally, Roblox has been criticized for its use of microtransactions, advergames, and brand ambassadors, as well as for the alleged financial exploitation of child game developers.
Roblox Corporation has responded to some concerns by launching updates intended to boost child safety, and it employs about 3,000 moderators. In 2024, "social hangout" games were restricted to players over 13 years old, and the platform implemented parental controls automatically blocking direct messages to users under 13. The platform implemented a rehaul of its friend system with age verification through facial recognition or through a government-issued ID. Additionally, in 2025, social hangout games featuring private locations such as bedrooms and bathrooms were restricted to users aged 17 and above. Roblox also allows parents to disable in-app microtransactions and limit which games their children can play.
Background
is an online game platform and game creation system developed and managed by Roblox Corporation, built around user-generated content and games, officially referred to as "experiences". Games can be created by any user through the platform's game engine, Roblox Studio, and then be shared to and played by other players. The games featured on Roblox vary in genre, from role-playing games to ones centered around escaping prison, among others. The platform is made to appeal to a family-friendly audience, and has been described as a massively multiplayer online game. While Roblox is free-to-play, it features a virtual currency known as "Robux" that can be purchased with real-world money. Robux can be used to purchase virtual items that the player can use on their virtual character on the platform, or access experiences that require payment. Once a developer has accrued 30,000 Robux, they may exchange the Robux for real-world currency through the Developer Exchange program.In the second quarter of 2025, Roblox reported a daily active user count of over 100 million, its highest on record. A December 2017 study found that children ages 5 to 9 primarily spend their time playing Roblox over all other activities when using a PC. According to the company in 2020, the monthly player base included half of all American children under the age of 16. As of 2024, around 40% of all players are under the age of 13. Matt Kaufman is the chief safety officer at Roblox. The European video game content rating system PEGI classifies the game as "parental guidance recommended", while prior to September 2022 it classified the game as "suitable for 7 years and over". It cited the fact that the game hosts millions of instances of user-generated content which makes the platform difficult to classify as a whole. Similarly, the Entertainment Software Rating Board rates Roblox as "T for Teen", with the content descriptor "Diverse Content: Discretion Advised".
Sexual predation
Online child exploitation groups such as 764, CVLT, and other groups affiliated with The Com have been discovered operating on Roblox, something which has been acknowledged by Roblox themselves. In 2022, a 13-year-old girl was kidnapped after a man, using Roblox, persuaded her to sneak out of her house. In 2024, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that, since 2018, at least 24 people had been arrested in the United States on charges of abducting or sexually abusing children they had groomed on Roblox. On June 25, 2025, Aftermath reported that 6 people had been arrested in the United States in connection to grooming on Roblox since the start of the year.On December 13, 2021, the YouTube channel People Make Games released a video featuring an interview with an anonymous individual who maintained to be a victim of sexting with a 24-year-old Roblox game developer, who created the Sonic the Hedgehog fangame Sonic Eclipse Online, when she was 12. Although his account was terminated, he transferred the game to a friend's account and continued to make money from the game. Roblox refused action towards the game, as they did not see it as a safety concern; Sonic owner Sega later took the game down via a copyright infringement notice after being notified. The developer would later be sentenced to 15 years in prison for paying an Uber driver to drive a 15-year-old child from Indiana to his home state of New Jersey for sex.
Users have been documented evading Roblox content and chat moderation to perform sexual content by taking activity offsite to other social media platforms, especially Discord. While some communities place age limits to prevent users from joining, applications obtained by Rolling Stone for players to "work" in adjacent sexual games on the platform showed that the large majority of users in these communities were under 15. Bloomberg Businessweek reported the existence of forums on the dark web sharing tips on how to encourage children to contact predators offsite without detection by chat filters through the use of intentional typos and emojis.
Sexual exploitation of minors on Roblox has been used to justify and promote the short-selling of Roblox Corporation's stock by organizations such as The Bear Cave and the investment firm Hindenburg Research. Roblox has rejected claims made by these organizations, alleging that they were highlighting rare instances and that their promotion only served to further an agenda of causing others to sell stock. In March 2025, Roblox CEO David Baszucki said in response to concerns over child safety, "if you're not comfortable, don't let your kids be on Roblox". He stated in July 2025 that Roblox could serve as an effective online dating platform and that it could help lonely people meet in real life. The video game magazine PC Gamer described these statements as "tone-deaf". In November 2025 on the New York Times-affiliated podcast Hard Fork, Baszucki was asked his thoughts on the "the problem of predators on Roblox," responding, "We think of it not necessarily just as a problem, but an opportunity as well."
In September 2025, Núcleo Jornalismo launched an investigation into Roblox content aimed at children in Brazil with the support of academics and researchers from various universities in São Paulo. They found that there was a significant amount of sexual content involving minors simulating explicit acts on the platform in order to obtain Robux. Núcleo journalists claimed that much of the platform is supported by microtransactions and uses methods to make minors addicted to online purchases to a certain extent, which can be used to abuse them.
Sex games
A common criticism in regard to child safety on Roblox is the proliferation of games that depict sex clubs that facilitate virtual sexual roleplay between users and how easily accessible they are to underage players. Underage teenagers have been identified as both taking part in and facilitating these games. Because such games are quickly moderated, these communities often rely on Discord servers, a third-party chat app, to alert their members when a new sex game appears. Violative users often signal their intent through veiled messages like "abc for girl" or "abc to control me", after which others can accept through private chat.While not explicitly sexual, some games have been reported to feature suggestive environments that facilitate sexual or fetishistic roleplay such as vore or feet fetishes. Others may reference sexual memes like Rule 34. One prominent example is MeepCity, which was infamous for number of online daters inside the game and inappropriate clothing and actions found in the "party" feature. Rolling Stone profiled one 16-year-old girl who performed child prostitution as part of these games, who stated that she primarily did it for attention and secondarily for monetary gain via Robux. Individuals taking part in these games appear to overwhelmingly identify as part of vulnerable or marginalized demographics, namely those of queer or BIPOC communities. Sexual games on Roblox saw vastly increased use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2025, Roblox invited one thousand developers to participate in an Easter egg hunt-themed Roblox event titled The Hatch. One controversial invitee was "TheOfficiaITeddy" who, according to IGN, was involved in making games that "featured romantic, dating, and even sex-themed content" with his most popular game having hundreds of millions of plays. This controversial addition begot the #BoycottTheHatch movement, which partly led numerous developers to decline to participate in the event. Roblox, in response, announced on June 20 that they had removed TheOfficiaITeddy from The Hatch, and terminated the account on June 30.