Kentucky is suing Roblox for allegedly allowing child predators to run rampant on its platform and exposing children to heinous material — including simulators of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
The lawsuit, filed Monday by the office of Attorney General Russell Coleman, alleged that the gaming platform with 111 million active monthly users lacks guardrails to protect kids and creates a “playground” for pedophiles to meet potential victims, according to the document obtained by The Post.
Due to lax age verification protocols, child predators often create accounts on the massive multiplayer online game and game creation system and pose as children to lure in victims, the lawsuit alleged.
The free-for-all nature of the platform — used by two-thirds of all US children between ages 9 and 12 — has also allegedly allowed graphic, violent, and sexual material to be proliferated to minors, prosecutors claimed.
Citing a recent example, prosecutors detailed an influx of Charlie Kirk “assassination simulators” following the Turning Point USA co-founder’s death last month at a Utah Valley University campus event.
The simulations allowed “children as young as five years old to access animated bloody depictions of the September 10 shooting,” the lawsuit said.
“Roblox is designed to allow predators easy access to children and to use Roblox to groom and lure children from virtual contact to physical meetings, leading to harassment, kidnapping, trafficking, violence, and sexual assault of minors, all instances of which these children suffer as a direct result of Defendants’
actions and inactions,” the AG argued.
“For years, countless children have been sexually exploited and abused by predators they met on Roblox,” prosecutors wrote.
In a press conference with Coleman on Tuesday, Kentucky mother of three Courtney Norris said she mistakenly viewed Roblox as a safe online gaming choice for her children.
“I came to realize, later than I would like to admit, that it actually is the ‘Wild West’ of the internet, targeted at children,” she said.
Coleman demanded that the company install better age verification and content filters and add extensive parental controls during the press conference.
The company has faced increasing backlash in recent months.
The Kentucky suit comes after Louisiana sued the company in August. A suit was also filed in Iowa after a 13-year-old girl was allegedly introduced to an adult predator on the platform, then kidnapped, trafficked across multiple states, and raped.
A North Carolina mother also sued the gaming giant in August for allegedly enabling a predator to sexually exploit her young daughter through the popular children’s app.
The predator allegedly gave the minor Robux in exchange for sexually explicit images of herself, using Roblox’s own virtual currency as a reward for compliance with his demands.
Roblox has since fired back at the accusations that it fostered a haven for predators.
“We have rigorous safety measures in place from advanced AI models to an expertly trained team of thousands moderating our platform 24/7 for inappropriate content,” the company said in a statement.
“No system is perfect, and our work on safety is never done. We are constantly innovating our safety systems, including adding 100 new safeguards, such as facial age estimation, this year alone.”
The company added that users under 13 cannot directly message others on Roblox outside of games or experiences, and cannot directly message others during games or experiences unless the default setting is changed under parental controls.
With Post wires.
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