(WXYZ) — A lawsuit filed against Roblox claims there are a lack of restrictions, a lack of safety measures and a lack of age verification measures that cause problems for kids who encounter predators on the popular gaming app.
Attorney Matthew Dolman filed the lawsuit on behalf of a mother and daughter from Oakland County.
“It’s horrific and scary how many victims there are out there,” he told 7 News Detroit.
Watch Darren Cunningham's video report below:
The lawsuit alleges Roblox allowed a young girl to be sexually exploited.
“What you have is in this case, an 8-year-old who’s playing online and thinks cloaked behind the anonymity of an online figure is another 8-year-old or another child close to their age and realize this is a grown man," Dolman said.
He said the man built an emotional connection, gained her trust and sent her graphic images, sexually explicit images of himself and then encouraged her to reciprocate.
Dolman claims the company only cares about profit.
The attorney said, “Their goal, their incentive was to have as many users on their platform as possible, which raised their valuation, which raise their stock price and the returns to shareholders when they could have put simple safety measures like just age verification, but that would eliminate the amount of people on their platform.”
7 News Detroit posed a question on our Facebook page by asking parents how they feel about their kids playing Roblox and what the rules are in their home.
The responses vary from parents who have no problem with Roblox at all with the proper oversight to zero tolerance.
Kevin Gnacke was willing to talk with us on camera about his son's experience.
“He came out and said, ‘Oh, dad. Look, we’re playing.’ I’m like, ‘Who are you playing with?’ And he goes, ‘Oh, I don’t know. He’s a guy on Roblox and we just started ...' I’m like, I shut it down. I said, 'Nope. Nope. We’re not doing that,'" he explained.
Gnacke said changes are needed, which is what Dolman said the lawsuit calls for.
“Give out a specific code that a child can create just for his friends to join, that we can get on the phone with mom and dad of Joey or Alex at the school that he goes to, 'Hey, this is the code for him to play with his friends. Nobody else can get their code,'” the father suggested.
Dolman said, “Our goal is to cripple this company if we can. It is an $82 billion company, so that would be almost an impossible task, so what do we do next? We try to force systemic change.”
A Roblox spokesperson released the following statement:
"We are deeply troubled by any incident that endangers our users, and safety is a top priority. We dedicate substantial resources, including advanced technology and 24/7 human moderation, to help detect and prevent inappropriate content and behavior, including attempts to direct users off platform, where safety standards and moderation may be less stringent than ours. While no system is perfect, Roblox has implemented rigorous safeguards, including restrictions on sharing personal information, links, and user-to-user image sharing, and prohibiting sexual conversations. We also partner with law enforcement and leading child safety organizations worldwide to combat the sexual exploitation of children.”
