3 days ago
Children's video game branded ‘perfect place for paedophiles'
A video game played by millions of children in the UK is the 'perfect place for paedophiles' and 'fails to implement basic safety controls', a US state lawsuit has claimed.
Roblox has become a 'breeding ground for sex predators' where child abusers 'thrive, unite, hunt and victimise our kids', according to Liz Murrill, the Republican attorney general of Louisiana.
The lawsuit alleged that 'far from creating a safe place for children' Roblox, which has an age rating of seven in the UK, had 'provided a perfect place for paedophiles' that 'lacks safety features to protect children from predators and lacks warnings for parents and child users'.
The video game, which is played by an estimated 61pc of British children aged between eight and 14, allows children to build virtual worlds and customised games that they can share with others.
It has more than 380 million players globally and is one of the world's most popular video games among children, allowing children under the age of 13. It has almost 5 million players in the UK alone.
However Roblox – which can be played on consoles, PCs and smartphones – has long faced claims that abusers have targeted the game to attempt to contact children.
According to the lawsuit, for many years most of Roblox's parental controls within the game were off by default, even when the account was linked to a child.
Child users could easily chat to others with no parental oversight and potentially be directed away from the game onto other messaging apps.
Its settings allowed adults to 'easily communicate with children ... creating a virtual world where predators can freely target and groom children', the lawsuit claimed.
Children were also able to access games with adult themes, according to a report by an investment firm last year. These included user-generated games such as 'Escape to Epstein Island'.
Roblox, which was founded in 2004 and is now valued at more than $80bn (£59bn), tightened up many of its parental settings in November last year after a series of reports detailed instances of predators targeting children in the game.
Children under the age of 13 now need parental permission to access most of its messaging features and parents can add screen time limits or monitor friend lists.
The Louisiana lawsuit alleged that, in July, a man suspected of possessing child-abuse material was arrested while 'actively using' Roblox and a 'voice-alerting technology designed to mimic the voice of a young female'.
A Roblox spokesman said: 'We can't comment on pending litigation. But we dedicate substantial resources, including advanced technology and 24/7 human moderation, to help detect and prevent inappropriate content and behaviour, 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 technology and enforcement safeguards, including restrictions on sharing personal information, links, and user-to-user image sharing. The safety of our community is a top priority.'
In July, Roblox added additional age verification checks in the UK in response to the Online Safety Act. These require users to undergo an age estimation check to access additional online chat features.
