LOS ANGELES — Online gaming platform Roblox has grown to more than 144 million users since it launched 20 years ago, but one father said his son logged onto a very dangerous space where he suffered serious, life-altering harm.
“I was absolutely horrified that he ended up getting into certain types of communities that are very adult-like,” said the dad, referred to as J.H. in a California-based federal lawsuit against Roblox and Discord. “I was horrified to know that there are a lot of people out there that are trying to groom my kid.”
J.H., who will not be identified in order to protect his son’s identity, spoke exclusively with Spectrum News.
J.H.’s lawsuit is one of at least 120 against Roblox with similar allegations — that predators can interact with minors through the game’s chat feature and then move the interactions off the game platform to communication apps, especially those that have disappearing message features.
The father said his son was told by predators to use Discord, a messaging platform that allows people to share images and delete messages, after they initially started chatting with him on Roblox.
Discord did not respond to Spectrum News’ requests to comment.
Roblox said it recently mandated age verification, made it easier for parents to control who their kids talk to and restricted image sharing within the game.
“At Roblox, safety is integrated into the very foundation of our platform,” a Roblox spokesperson said in a statement. “We deploy a multi-layered safety system designed to protect our users through proactive technology and strict policy enforcement. This includes a complete restriction on sharing images or videos in chat as well as rigorous filters, on-by-default, that are designed to prevent the exchange of personal information. Through the enforcement of age-based settings, younger users are limited to chatting only with peers by default. We take swift action against those found breaking our rules and work in close coordination with law enforcement to hold bad actors accountable. While no system can be perfect, we are constantly making enhancements to our safety measures.”
J.H. said he was comfortable letting his now 15-year-old son play Roblox for several years because he felt the game catered to kids.
But he noticed changes, especially when his son asked about technology that could make it harder to trace his internet activity.
“He kind of started to ask me questions that I felt were above his age,” J.H. said. “Like he was talking to me about VPNs.”
J.H. said he found explicit images on his son’s computer that were shared between his son and multiple online predators after his son installed Discord.
“I was so shocked about what I saw — the things he was doing, the amount of inappropriate conversations that were going on, it was just a lot to take in,” J.H. said.
Los Angeles County has also sued Roblox over similar concerns. A statement announcing the lawsuit said Roblox is “an unsafe online environment that has become a breeding ground for predators.”
J.H.’s lawsuit cites other allegations of adults harming children on the platform, including a 27-year-old man who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for kidnapping an 11-year-old girl he met on Roblox and a California man who was arrested for kidnapping and unlawful sexual conduct with a 10-year-old girl he met on the game.
J.H.’s attorney, Jamie Powers, said Roblox didn’t properly warn parents about potential dangers.
“The company is out there saying it’s a safe product for children when in reality, there is just this unfettered access to minors from predators that are specifically targeting them,” said Powers, whose firm, Dolman Law Group, has filed over 50 lawsuits against Roblox.
Powers said Roblox has also exposed minors to explicit content. Roblox features individual minigames that users can create themselves.
One such game — called Public Bathroom Simulator — allowed young players to simulate sexual activity. The creator of that game shut it down last year, saying it became too difficult to moderate bad behavior.
J.H. also criticized safety features rolled out this year.
Roblox now uses artificial intelligence to scan a user’s face to determine their age and then restricts them to chatting with others in their determined age group.
While Spectrum News’ Renee Eng tested the technology and found it was accurate in her case, J.H. and other news outlets have discovered examples of people selling minor’s accounts for less than $5.
“We know two things about systems like that is that one, they can be bypassed and manipulated, and two, they can be wrong,” Powers said.
J.H. said he wants justice for his son and feels civil litigation is his only option. He said law enforcement hasn’t found those responsible for abusing his son.
Catching online predators
After serving a search warrant at a Panorama City apartment building just before sunrise on a clear and cold December morning, Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Robin Richards said predators know the platforms kids gravitate toward.
“The bad guys are there also,” said Richards, the commander of the Los Angeles Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. “[They’re] trying to learn everything about those kids in order to lure them into doing something that is illegal.”
Richards and his team had just arrested a man, who worked as an after-school counselor, after they got a tip that he had sexual images of children on his phone.
The regional task force investigates predatory online behavior in five Southern California counties: LA, Orange, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Ventura, populated by 19 million people. It receives thousands of tips a year, mostly from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and from social media apps and internet service providers.
Last year, the task force arrested 265 people. In one particularly busy two-week span, officers rescued 27 children.
Data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children showed a 52% increase in reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2024 compared to the previous year.
Spectrum News followed the team during two recent arrests, including one man arrested in South LA after Google alerted them he had allegedly uploaded hundreds of videos and images — referred to by the task force as child sexual abuse material — to his cloud account.
After task force officers make an arrest, they work out of a converted van to analyze the images and interview the suspect. Officers will look for any images of minors the suspect may have personal contact with, such as a family member.
The task force focuses on images of minors 13 years old and younger.
After an interview, the man in South LA was arrested for possession of child sexual abuse material, which can result in a felony charge, but task force officers said first-time offenders typically won’t serve jail time.
Despite arresting hundreds of people every year, Det. Maurice Kwon, who works on the task force, said the job comes with its own frustrations.
“You know, the most challenging part for us is that a lot of these guys are out of our city boundaries…sometimes they are living in different countries,” Kwon said. “So, to connect the victim to a suspect that may be in a different country is very difficult.”
Kwon said parents can keep their kids safe by monitoring their online activity, checking for any signs of unusual behavior and keeping an open dialogue.
“If you’re talking to your child, make sure that they are not sharing personal information,” Kwon said.
Moving forward
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a tool available to help scrub victims’ images off the internet.
J.H. said his son is now in therapy and struggling to come to terms with the abuse, which has also led him to question his sexuality.
“He went from being a very happy, go-lucky child to a very secluded, quiet child now,” he said. “He struggles a lot with depression now.”
His son doesn’t play online games or use the internet anymore, and J.H. said he’s focused on providing as much love, support and resources as he can.
