U.S. Senators Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, and Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, have opened an investigation into child safety on Roblox, citing reports of sexual exploitation, grooming and other crimes involving children who met through the online gaming platform.
The senators informed Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki of the investigation in a letter on Thursday, ordering the company to preserve records related to child safety, sexual and physical abuse, bullying and financial exploitation.
Hawley said Roblox markets itself as a safe digital playground for children as young as 5 but that the public record raises serious questions about those claims.
They cited cases in which people who met children through Roblox were later arrested for grooming, sexual abuse, kidnapping, rape and murder.
The senators also alleged that the platform has been used to trade child sexual abuse material, host sexually explicit virtual experiences involving children, extort children into producing explicit content and lure them to in-person meetings.
Roblox reported 65,381 instances of suspected child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2025, more than double the number it reported in 2024, according to the senators.
“Roblox appears to prioritize revenue and engagement metrics over the safety and well-being of our children,” Hawley and Durbin wrote. “Children on your platform are hurting. Congress will not look the other way.”
The investigation follows child-safety lawsuits against Roblox by the attorneys general of Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Kentucky and other states, including a more recent case brought by Ohio.
Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman told Politico that the company is built on “the foundation of safety” and does not compromise on that commitment. “We look forward to sharing the facts about how we protect children on the platform.”
————————————————
