A Washington state family is suing the company behind one of the most popular online games for kids, saying that the company misled parents about the program’s safety and ignored the risks posed to children, according to court records.
The lawsuit, which was filed by the father on behalf of his daughter, said that she was targeted by a man who used Roblox, posing as a child and gaining her trust, KIRO reported.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, claims the man built an emotional connection with the girl and promised to be her friend before coercing her into sending sexually explicit photos.
The father said he allowed his daughter to use Roblox because of the claims from the company that it was safe, KIRO reported.
The suit says Roblox allowed predators to interact with children using the game’s design and communication tools, which allow users to create virtual environments that they can interact with each others’ avatars.
It allows communication through direct messaging, in-game chat and shared virtual spaces.
The platform only requires a birth date, username and password to sign up, but there is no verification of the person’s actual age, the lawsuit contends.
The lawsuit said there were thousands of members who were “openly trading child pornography and soliciting sexual acts from minors.”
The lawsuit accuses Roblox Corporation of negligence, failure to warn, unreasonable and defective design, negligent misrepresentation and fraudulent concealment.
A Roblox spokesperson responded to the suit in a statement to KIRO, which read:
We are deeply troubled by any incident that endangers any user. Roblox aims to build a platform that sets the bar for safety online, and we prioritize the safety of our community. This is why our policies are purposely stricter than those found on many other platforms. We limit chat for younger users, don’t allow user-to-user image sharing, and have filters designed to block the sharing of personal information. We also understand that no system is perfect and that is why we are constantly working to further improve our safety tools and platform restrictions to ensure parents can trust us to help keep their children safe online.
We also understand this is an industry-wide issue and we are working to develop industry-wide standards and solutions. For instance, Roblox is implementing an industry-leading policy to help prevent older users from communicating with children by requiring a sophisticated facial age estimation process for all Roblox users who access our communications features. We partner with law enforcement and leading child safety and mental health organizations worldwide to combat the sexual exploitation of children and are a founding member of the Tech Coalition’s Lantern project and the nonprofit Robust Open Online Safety Tools (ROOST).
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