By Jaylin Buchanan
Roblox is one of the largest online gaming platforms in the world, hosting a variety of games created by site users and built-in tools that allow players to make games for others.
The platform is innocent enough on the surface, but when you have a site that attracts as many young children as Roblox does, bad actors are bound to be afoot. And right now, we are seeing those actors coming to the light in droves.
The problem has not always been quite as prevalent as it is today. One U of L senior who played Roblox in 2014 claimed that the game never felt unsafe.
Though in the years since he played, the problem has truly begun to grow in size.
Child predators are incredibly active on the site. With the help of the game engine, people can make very explicit games, especially because a majority of Roblox’s user base is children. A number of games on the platform allow players to engage in sexual activities, with several games on the platform having strip clubs.
Being a child on Roblox can be dangerous, and the moderation doesn’t make it easier, as they frequently do not ban the ones who are going after children, allowing the behavior to go unpunished.
However, seeing what was happening in the community, people began to step up. Vigilantes appeared due to just how poor the moderation was and tried to protect the children themselves, with one of the most well-known being YouTuber Schlep. According to Schlep, he was a victim of sexual grooming on Roblox at a very young age, and when his mother stepped in and filed a report to Roblox about what was going on, the company did nothing in response, seemingly ignoring them.
This incident pushed him to investigate predators on Roblox, along with another YouTuber named JiDion. He collaborated with local law enforcement to arrest these predators, managing to make six arrests. But while he was doing a good job at catching the predators, Roblox seemed to have a different opinion on the matter.
On Aug. 9, 2025, Schlep posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he had received a cease from Roblox, with threats of legal action should he attempt to continue his operation.
After this was made public, people made their opinions known on how they felt on the platform, and not just regular civilians either. Two weeks ago, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill sued the company, saying that they had endangered children with their platform.
Roblox is also fighting many other lawsuits all across the country as people come out with their own stories of how they had been targeted by the predators on the platform. In the past Roblox has been banned in several countries including China, Turkey and Jordan.
More recently Indonesia has asked them to remove harmful content and strengthen their chat filter or else they may be banned.
This ban is unlikely to occur in the United States and as an interviewee puts it “Roblox doesn’t need a ban, it needs safeguards.”
As it stands Roblox is essentially the Wild West of internet platforms. The rules are rarely enforced and when they are its not always on the right people, and maybe one day those rails will be placed in a way that allows Roblox to become a safe platform for children, but until then Roblox is going to have to weather quite the storm.
