{"id":590289,"date":"2026-04-22T14:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=590289"},"modified":"2026-04-22T14:20:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:20:00","slug":"roblox-settles-with-3-states-over-endangering-children-will-pay-36-million-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=590289","title":{"rendered":"Roblox Settles With 3 States Over Endangering Children, Will Pay $36 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roblox Settles With 3 States Over Endangering Children, Will Pay $36 Million<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Online interactive gaming platform Roblox has agreed to settle with West Virginia, Alabama, and Nevada for a combined $35.78 million, committing to strengthen children\u2019s safety through measures such as mandatory age verification and chat restrictions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Roblox reached an $11.08 million settlement with West Virginia. In an April 21 statement, the office of West Virginia Attorney General John B. McCuskey said that Roblox has agreed to \u201cmajor child safety overhaul.\u201d<\/strong> The settlement came after an investigation conducted by the office found that the platform exposed child users to sexual predators, sexual and violent content, and grooming risks.<\/p>\n

McCuskey said there were \u201cserious failures that left children exposed to real danger.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under the agreement, Roblox will verify the ages of all users before allowing chat access. This is expected to limit instances of adults contacting minors and reduce the risk of grooming. The company will block all chat until users verify their age, seeking to reduce the use of anonymous accounts by predators to target children.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once age verification is complete, adults can contact under-16 users only through verified trusted friends, according to the statement. The accounts of all under-16 users will, by default, run on safe content mode, which will reportedly block out adult-rated material.<\/p>\n

Roblox has also committed to recruiting an internet safety specialist in West Virginia. The settlement funds will be paid over several years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have two young daughters who love Roblox, so I know how popular it is,\u201d McCuskey said. \u201cI am thankful that Roblox took our concerns seriously and worked with us to make these major safety changes.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced in an April 21 statement that the state has reached a $12.2 million settlement with Roblox.<\/p>\n

Under the deal, Roblox has agreed to verify the age of users and restrict content accordingly, use facial estimation technology and government ID to verify users, and utilize behavioral monitoring to identify those whose ages may have been recorded incorrectly.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cRoblox will not allow communication involving minors to be encrypted. Unencrypted communication allows law enforcement to be able to more easily combat child exploitation networks, trafficking, and the distribution of illegal and harmful content,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Parents will have expanded control over their child\u2019s use of Roblox, including deciding whom their children can talk to and what games they can play, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis settlement sends a clear message to every platform operating in this space\u2014you cannot turn a blind eye to the exploitation of children and expect to avoid consequences,\u201d<\/strong> Marshall said.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPlatforms that host child consumers must do their part to give parents a fighting chance to shield their children from harm. While parents will always play the primary role in protecting their children online, we are raising the bar on what we expect from gaming platforms\u2014parents need a partner, not a black box.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Epoch Times reached out to Roblox for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.<\/p>\n

Roblox\u2019s deals with West Virginia and Alabama follow an agreement<\/a> with Nevada announced last week under which the company agreed to pay $10 million.<\/p>\n

The company also committed to spending $1 million on a safety awareness campaign targeting users, and $1.5 million on a law enforcement liaison position. The Nevada deal includes commitments similar to those of Alabama.<\/p>\n

California-based Roblox, which has about 151.5 million daily active users, is used by \u201cnearly half of the entire U.S. population of children under 16 years old,\u201d Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said during an April 15 press conference. About 42 percent of Roblox\u2019s users are under 13.<\/p>\n

Responding to the Nevada settlement, Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that it disputes the allegations made against the company.<\/p>\n

However, \u201c[Roblox is] proud to have worked alongside Attorney General Ford to reach this landmark agreement, which builds on our work to establish a new standard for digital safety,\u201d Kaufman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis resolution creates a blueprint for how industry and regulators can work together to protect the next generation of digital citizens.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Child Safety Concerns<\/h2>\n

Activities of the online predator network \u201c764\u201d have been linked to Roblox, with the predators using the platform to communicate with minors. The network is linked to a broader extremist online system that encourages children toward self-harm, suicide, sexual exploitation, and animal abuse.<\/p>\n

In December, Iowa announced a lawsuit against Roblox, accusing the platform of being the \u201cperfect environment for child predators, pornographers, scammers, fraudsters, online sex rings, and inappropriate content.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roblox allows users to create Lego-like avatars and play various games, called \u201cexperiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome experiences are at strip clubs, others are at \u2018Epstein\u2019s Island,\u2019 where simulated underage sexual activity takes place,\u201d the lawsuit said. \u201cThere are also hundreds of experiences just about Sean \u2018Diddy\u2019 Combs, who was recently convicted of trafficking and prostitution. … These are just a few of the thousands of examples.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Other states like Louisiana, Kentucky, Texas<\/a>, and Florida have also sued Roblox over child safety concerns.<\/p>\n

On April 13, Roblox announced age-based accounts and expanded parental controls for users under 16.<\/p>\n

Users between the ages of 5 and 8, and 9 to 15, will have separate accounts with stricter adult content censorship.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll content uploaded to Roblox goes through their existing moderation systems, including AI asset scanning, ongoing user report review, and multimodal moderation that evaluates scenes in real time for potential policy violations,\u201d the company said.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFor content made available to users under 16, they will apply an additional continuous process that dynamically selects games. This process will include developer verification, extended content evaluation and rating, and additional limits on content more suited to older audiences.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Robolox became the first online gaming platform to require facial age checks for users in order to access chat.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince then, over 50 percent of global and 65 percent of U.S. daily active users have completed an age check,\u201d <\/strong><\/em>according to the company.<\/p>\n

Child safety advocacy group Enough is Enough criticized Roblox for taking \u201cso long\u201d to institute stringent safety controls to protect children from predators, according to an April 16 statement from the organization.<\/p>\n

Enough is Enough questioned the timing of these new measures, highlighting the numerous lawsuits Roblox is facing over child safety concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, it is clear that nothing motivates tech platforms to protect children online like lawsuits or legislation,\u201d <\/strong><\/em>Donna Rice Hughes, CEO of the group, said. \u201cTech platforms like Roblox must be compelled to do right by children. Congress must take note and pass online child safety solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 04\/22\/2026 – 10:20<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roblox Settles With 3 States Over Endangering Children, Will Pay $36 Million Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, Online interactive gaming platform Roblox has agreed to settle with West Virginia, Alabama, and Nevada for a combined $35.78 million, committing to strengthen children\u2019s safety through measures such as mandatory age verification and chat restrictions.… Continue reading Roblox Settles With 3 States Over Endangering Children, Will Pay $36 Million<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":590280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,10,21,12,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancel-culture","category-censorship","category-civil-liberties","category-election-integrity","category-equal-justice","category-free-speech","category-religious-freedom","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=590289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/590280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=590289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=590289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=590289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}