“If I’m a 50-year-old predator, I can go on Roblox and pretend to be a 12-year-old girl, something I could never do in a public place. But on Roblox, I can now pretend to be a 12-year-old girl and approach other 12-year-old girls in that role,” Dolman Law partner and attorney Stan Gipe said. “It allows a predator to open a door, strike up a friendship, and begin the grooming process.”
A South Carolina family has filed a lawsuit claiming that their 11-year-old was traumatized after being groomed and abused by an adult predator on Roblox and Discord, two communication platforms geared toward gamers.
According to Live5News, the lawsuit names both applications as defendants.
Roblox, a gaming platform popular with children, boasts more than 111.8 million daily users, whereas Discord focuses more on instant-messaging features and is often used to coordinate video game-related activities, like livestreams and clan chats.
The lawsuit alleges that the girl, now 15, encountered a predator posing as a child on Roblox in 2022. On Roblox, the predator allegedly used “grooming tactics” to manipulate the child into continuing their conversations on Discord, which has somewhat more relaxed security protocols and age verification procedures.
After the conversation moved to Discord, the older man started to send explicit messages, eventually coercing her into sending a sexually explicit image of herself.
Attorneys from the Dolman Law Group, representing the girl and her family, say that Roblox—perhaps even more than Discord—is uniquely dangerous, because almost anyone can make a profile without undergoing intensive verification.
“Roblox has become a new playground; kids go out there, they interact with other children and other people on the platform,” Dolman Law attorney and partner Stan Gipe said.
“If I’m a 50-year-old predator, I can go on Roblox and pretend to be a 12-year-old girl, something I could never do in a public place. But on Roblox, I can now pretend to be a 12-year-old girl and approach other 12-year-old girls in that role,” Gipe said. “It allows a predator to open a door, strike up a friendship, and begin the grooming process.”
The lawsuit notes that the alleged victim had used Roblox for years, and that her family believed that Roblox and Discord were safe for younger users.
“[Roblox] get[s] out and make affirmative representations about how safe the platform is to leave your kids on. It’s these affirmative representations that lull parents, grandparents and others into a false sense of safety and allow their kid to get on the platform,” Gipe said.
As LegalReader.com has reported before, this is not the first time that Roblox and Discord have been jointly targeted by families seeking justice for children abused or exploited by internet predators. In another recently-filed lawsuit, a family claimed that their child committed suicide after being targeted by an older man; in that case, the conversation also began on Roblox before moving to Discord, with the predator—who has since been arrested—giving the child tips on how to deactivate and circumvent parental safety controls.
Sources
Lawsuit: Charleston 11-year-old groomed by predator on Roblox, Discord
He Made a Friend on Roblox. Their Relationship Turned Sinister.
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