Roblox, Discord face lawsuit

The lawsuit alleges that a 13-year-old user was coerced into sending sexual photos with a serial predator who had recently been charged with engaging in sexual interactions with another child, with law enforcement estimating that the perpetrator, Sebastian Romero, had exploited another 26 minors.

“Our client did give this man his address. They made plans to meet up in person, not at the client’s family home, but at a nearby location in person,” said Pat Huyett, attorney at Anapol Weiss, a law firm working on the case. “Our client ended up not going, but the predator did show up, and the man was infuriated and began threatening him and threatening his family.”

The incident occurred in New Jersey, however, the suit was filed in the San Mateo County Superior Court.

Gaming and social media companies with a large youth user base have come under scrutiny in recent years, sometimes related to the addictive nature of their platforms and other times regarding the platforms’ seemingly relaxed approach toward stopping predatory behavior. Over the last few years, both companies have been named in other lawsuits in San Francisco and San Diego over the alleged lack of safeguards in place to prevent such illegal interactions.

Roblox said in a statement that it “takes the safety of its community very seriously” and that it’s “constantly innovating and launching new safety features including more than 40 safety features and policies in 2024.”

According to the complaint, Roblox’s age verification policies are largely toothless, as they don’t require users to provide identification or a video that confirms their age. This means that minors can easily portray themselves as adults, subsequently allowing them to receive direct messages from other adults. Conversely, adults can pose as minors and interact with children and teenagers. Anne Marie Murphy, attorney at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy law firm — which is also working on the case — said their client’s father took all the necessary precautions before his son became a Roblox and Discord user.

“Our client’s father was really on top of it and was part of the process of signing his son up and read all the parent materials to make sure there would be safety on the site,” Murphy said. “Unfortunately, what happened in this case, which is often what happens, is that you have an adult masquerading as a child and then interacting with children. The predator was 27 years old, but he was telling our client he was a 16-year-old boy.”

The complaint also states that Roblox has allowed harmful games on their site, created by third-party developers, with little to no oversight.

“These are two of the most popular platforms for teenagers. I personally have twin teenagers, so I know it’s ubiquitous,” Murphy said. “As a parent, until I started working on this case, I had no idea that there was so much sexualized content on the platforms.”

The complaint references an investigation that revealed massive groups, totaling over 100,000 members, “openly trading child pornography and soliciting sexual acts from minors,” as well as other similar criminal conduct.

The document also points to over 600 Diddy-related games, many of which re-create alleged incidents involving music mogul Sean Combs, who is awaiting trial for a slew of sex trafficking and abuse-related crimes, and it also references many accounts and games related to the actions of Jeffrey Epstein.

Such conduct occurs on many sites used by minors, Huyett said, however, some platforms, like Instagram, have started implementing more robust controls. Sites like Roblox and Discord, however, are particularly appealing for child predators, he said.

“This type of exploitation does occur on other platforms but … by far, child predators prefer platforms like Roblox and Discord,” Huyett said. “It’s like the world’s biggest playground, and so that is a draw for [predators]. They fly under the radar a bit more than platforms like Instagram, which has been in the spotlight for awhile now. Roblox has too, but other platforms overshadow them because they’re more widely used.”