The Platform Wildly Popular with Kids Has No Safety Standards, Warns NCOSE
WASHINGTON, DC (October 9, 2024) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) urgently renewed its call on Roblox to implement safety standards for children, and for Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, after a new report from Hindenburg Research emphasized that the platform is an “X-rated pedophile hellscape, exposing children to grooming, pornography, violent content and extremely abusive speech.” Roblox has been on NCOSE’s Dirty Dozen List since 2023 for being a major contributor to sexual exploitation.
“Roblox is rightly under fire from investors, as the platform refuses to implement the most basic, common-sense measures to protect its young users – a quarter of which are under age nine. Roblox has knowingly left children vulnerable to the many predators and pornographic content rampant on its platform. We commend Hindenburg Research for bringing additional attention to Roblox’s refusal to adequately protect children,” said Lina Nealon, Vice President and Director of Corporate Advocacy, National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“Roblox must make the platform safe by default and design, rather than continuously pushing more of the burden onto parents – and young children themselves – to try to monitor a platform with more than 50 million games.
“Roblox is a prime example for why Congress must immediately pass the Kids Online Safety Act, as it would force the platform to turn on available safety features and invest the necessary resources to protect their young users. Online platforms have proven to us that they will not ‘do the right thing’ by our children unless they are compelled to do so. Congress must act with urgency – our children cannot wait,” Nealon said.
Among numerous findings, Hindenburg Research found that:
- “After we found a username, we listed our age as ‘under 13’ to see if children are being exposed to adult content. By merely plugging ‘adult’ into the Roblox search bar, we found a group called ‘Adult Studios’ with 3,334 members openly trading child pornography and soliciting sexual acts from minors.
- “We tracked some of the members of ‘Adult Studios’ and easily found 38 Roblox groups – one with 103,000 members – openly soliciting sexual favors and trading child pornography.
- “The chatrooms trading in child pornography had no age restrictions. Roblox reports that 21% of its users are under the age of 9, a number that is likely underestimated given that Roblox has no age verification aside from users seeking 17+ experiences.
- “Registered as a child, we were also able to access games like ‘Escape to Epstein Island’ and ‘Diddy Party’. We found over 600 ‘Diddy’ games, including ‘Survive Diddy’ and ‘Run From Diddy Simulator’.
- “Since September 2nd, 2024, third-party monitor ‘Moderation For Dummies’ has reported ~12,400 erotic roleplay accounts on Roblox. These include everything from ‘rape/forceful sex fetishes’ to underage users ‘willing to do anything for Robux’.
- “Users seeking sexual experiences on Roblox are so pervasive that there are thousands of Roblox sex videos on porn sites, inviting users of unknown ages to make explicit content on the platform.
- “We tested out Roblox’s experiences to see what else kids were being exposed to. We quickly encountered images of male genitalia and hate speech in Roblox’s ‘school simulator’ game, which had registered 28.9 million visits with no age restrictions.”
In April 2024, NCOSE research found similar disturbing content, including:
- Roblox still allows adult strangers to direct message, chat, and “friend” children – even with case after case of children being groomed and abused through the platform, like this 9-year-old girl who was abused and exploited by two predators who befriended her on Roblox.
- A five-year-old can sign up with no email or parental permission and access games where their character may be sexually assaulted.
- The default setting upon creating an account can expose an eight-year-old to ‘experiences’ of strippers leading naked men on a leash across the floor and couples having sex.
- Using an 11-year-old girl account, NCOSE research encountered the following scenarios within 45 minutes:
- In “Boys and Girls sleepover,” walked in on people simulating sex and walking around in thongs, chat offering “I’m single” “let’s play spin the bottle” “let’s all get to bed”
- “Get Eaten by a Neko Girl” had various houses with sexually dressed “guards” (didn’t have enough “money” to get in). Neko girl is an anime girl that looks like a cat – and is almost always super sexualized.
- In “Critters Roleplay” was humped by a character in a bunny costume.
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-partisan organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography. https://endsexualexploitation.org/
