Even More Problems at Roblox (RBLX)
Roblox (NYSE: RBLX — $18.0 billion) is a popular platform for children generally between six and fourteen to play online. The Bear Cave previously published on Roblox in February 2022 and alleged that “the company has engaged in litigation and intimidation to help conceal allegations of pedophilia on the platform.” Today’s investigation by The Bear Cave finds that Roblox has facilitated hundreds of known child abuse cases, popular Roblox game developers have been arrested on child abuse allegations, Roblox games include images of dismembered bodies and Nazi logos, and the company has been linked to child suicide attempts and the widespread production of child pornography. In sum, The Bear Cave believes Roblox has facilitated more child abuse than any public company in history.
In April of this year, FOX2Detroit reported that 21-year-old Danil Baker met a 14-year-old girl through Roblox and “pretended to be a 17-year-old” and “convinced the victim to give him her phone number and started texting, and allegedly convinced the girl to share nude images.” Baker then “picked her up from school in Ohio and took her to a park [and] coerced her to perform sex acts on him.” At the time, Baker was out on bond for a separate pending criminal case also involving a minor.
Ultimately, the 14-year-old girl was “found crying alone in the bathroom of a Kroger.”
In February 2022, 33-year-old Howard Graham drove around 900 miles to meet a 13-year-old girl he had connected with two days earlier on Roblox. Graham drove the girl from her home in Topeka, Kansas back to his home in Clayton County, Georgia. The next month Graham, who had a prior criminal matter from 2007, was arrested on multiple charges including “rape, kidnapping, and sex trafficking.” Regarding the case, Clayton County Police Captain John Ivy said,
“The subject got on there, praising these little kids, because they think they’re playing on there with other kids. And they’re not. They’re playing with people who are preying on kids. We’re extremely lucky we found this young girl and she’s alive.”
Police found the 13-year-old girl outside a Dollar General.
In January of this year, a federal jury in Grand Island, Nebraska indicted 26-year-old Tadashi Kojima on charges he “willfully and unlawfully kidnapped a 13-year-old and took the minor across state lines with the intent to engage in illegal sexual activity.” The child’s father told police “his son had been communicating with someone while playing Roblox and then was invited to talk on a chatroom service.” In an interview, the child’s mother, Heather McConney, said in part,
“I don’t understand what this person had on my son. What grasp he had on him that convinced him to just walk away.”
Grand Island Police found the 13-year-old boy along with Kojima sitting inside a white Toyota Avalon at a Git-N-Split convenience store.
Law enforcement seems acutely aware that Roblox is an unchallenging place for predators to meet children. For example, Osiel Mendoza Guevara, a 20-year-old Georgia sheriff’s deputy, flew from Georgia to Alabama to allegedly meet with a 16-year-old girl he had connected with over Roblox. Guevara was charged with “enticing a child for immoral purposes” this January. News reports added, “Investigators are asking parents to keep a close eye on what their children are doing on these platforms, saying evil intent can lurk in what appears to be the most harmless of activities.”
An October 2022 lawsuit filed in the San Francisco Superior Court against Roblox “for the harms caused to a 13-year-old [girl] and her family, beginning when she was only 10 years old, from use of and exposure to Defendants’ unreasonably dangerous and defective products” raises more concerns.
The lawsuit alleges at age ten the victim, abbreviated as S.U., was given an iPad with Roblox installed but was quickly connected to “adult men who abused her for months” and was coerced into downloading other apps to share inappropriate photos. The lawsuit also alleges, in part,
“From the outset, S.U. was approached by adult males who claimed to want to be her ‘friend.’ They were allowed to message her privately through the Roblox private message features, but also messaged her in group chats once they learned that she was a minor female. S.U. always wondered how Roblox knew when someone was swearing, or fighting, or engaged in other ‘prohibited’ behavior on the Roblox game but ignored entirely the rampant and overt sexual advances she received from adult players on a regular basis.”
The lawsuit adds that the victim attempted suicide in July 2020, attempted suicide again in August 2020, and planned a third attempt for her 12th birthday in March 2021. Ultimately, she “had to withdraw from school after multiple suicide attempts.”
A recent video by popular 26-year-old Roblox YouTuber Ruben Sim appears to corroborate the lawsuit’s allegations that predators often first meet children on Roblox and then use Roblox to lure children to other sites. For example, in some Roblox group chats used to trade virtual items such as virtual clothing and accessories, The Bear Cave believes predators will encourage children to download other apps, like Snapchat and Discord, to have more open communication.
In one Roblox chat first highlighted by Ruben Sim, a Roblox user says “add me to trade on [ghost emoji] (only girls)” with the ghost emoji representing Snapchat. Another user writes “add me to trade on [disc emoji] girls. (14 btw),” a likely reference to Discord.
Roblox doesn’t appear to appreciate the efforts to highlight pedophilia on its platform. In November 2021, Roblox sued YouTuber Ruben Sim for $1.6 million and issued a lifetime ban on his usage of the platform.
Nonetheless, many top comments on the Ruben Sim Roblox video agree that Roblox moderation is not up to par and read, in part,
“Roblox really is just falling apart. Glad you're doing stuff like this because the Roblox moderators don't do [anything] literally almost half of the time unless they are caught…”
“Imagine a multi-billion-dollar corporation not being able to have a bare minimum moderation team.”
“It’s sad that most of the time Roblox moderation literally has to be called out by the voices of big YouTubers to take decisions on stuff like these.”
Sometimes the predators are Roblox’s own game developers.
In July 2022, Roblox game developer Arnold Castillo was “arrested on charges of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and coercion and enticement of a minor.” Castillo had gained a major following on Roblox starting in 2017 after developing a popular Sonic the Hedgehog spinoff Roblox game and would allegedly encourage children to join his off-platform Discord server for the game.
Notably, in an unlisted October 2022 video with over 1 million views titled, “The Roblox Developer Arrested By The FBI” Ruben Sim said he had repeatedly warned Roblox and police about Castillo as early as 2020, but the company took de minimis action.
The top comment on that video reads,
“The fact that Roblox protected this predator is insane, thankfully police finally took action against him.”
Problems in Roblox’s developer community run deep.
Another example is “MisterObvious” a major Roblox developer who won a “Bloxy award” from Roblox for being one of the best developers in the Roblox community. Ruben Sim later published videos, audio, and text screenshots showing “MisterObvious” sending and soliciting inappropriate content from underage girls. In addition, in April 2017 he filed a police report and in June 2017 uploaded a video on YouTube with over 1.2 million views covering the allegations. Roblox ultimately terminated MisterObvious’s account… in May 2021.
And just earlier this month another popular Roblox developer faced allegations of inappropriate conduct.
These issues extend to Roblox corporate as well. As The Bear Cave previously reported: “Roblox’s former social media manager ran a pornographic blog while employed by the company. Roblox’s official Twitter account retweeted content made by a self-described pedophile [and] Roblox allegedly shut down its own community forum after it became inundated with links to illegal child porn sites.”
None of these are isolated cases. Below is just a sampling of additional stories on child abuse facilitated by Roblox:
29-year-old convicted pedophile Owain Thomas “groomed 150 children to engage in sexual activity using Roblox” and the volume of abuse was “possibly unprecedented.” 48-year-old registered sex offender Clinton McElroy was arrested after convincing an 8-year-old girl “into sending sexually explicit videos in exchange for Robux.” 18-year-old Ron Machluf was indicted for using Roblox “to lure and commit sexual offenses against several girls between the ages of 7 and 12.” 23-year-old Terrence Barto was arrested for “indecent solicitation of a child, violation of sex offender registry and grooming” after “he contacted a 12-year-old boy in Texas via Roblox.” 61-year-old John Mathew Piecuch was indicted after posing as a 13-year-old boy on Roblox and “contacting a 12-year-old girl and requesting sexually explicit photos of her and her 5-year-old sibling.” 45-year-old Patrick Shane Penczak was charged with seven counts of crimes against children after meeting kids through Roblox. And two months ago, 21-year-old Daniel Diaz was arrested “for contacting a minor for purposes of committing a felony offense” after meeting with a child he contacted through Roblox.
Roblox CEO and founder David Baszucki sees things differently. In a June 2023 interview with The Verge titled, “Roblox doesn’t want to be just a kids game,” Baszucki was asked about the company’s conversations with lawmakers around safety on the platform and responded, in part,
“I think we are in an exceptional position both from a company culture point of view as well as strategically what we are building as a platform. Our Civility people are out speaking in various forums trying to take a leadership role in what’s the vision for kids on the Internet.” (13:52)
Mr. Baszucki also expressed optimism that artificial intelligence will help Roblox reduce its spending on platform safety. Mr. Baszucki said, in part,