Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin announced Monday that the state has filed lawsuits against Roblox Corporation and Discord Inc., alleging the two companies failed to adequately protect children and used deceptive practices related to the safety of their platforms.
Roblox is an online gaming platform where users can create and play games developed by other users, while Discord is a communication service that allows people to interact through text, voice and video chats and is widely used by gaming communities and other online groups.
The lawsuits, filed under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the state’s public nuisance law and common law unjust enrichment, seek injunctive relief, monetary damages and the return of profits the state alleges were wrongfully obtained from Arkansas consumers.
According to the complaints, Roblox has approximately 144 million daily active users, about 40% of whom are under the age of 13. The state alleges the platform failed to implement available age-verification technology, declined certain proposed safety measures and allowed harmful content and interactions involving minors to occur.
The attorney general’s office also cited reports submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children indicating that suspected child sexual exploitation incidents associated with Roblox increased from 675 in 2019 to more than 13,000 in 2023.
The lawsuit against Discord alleges the platform’s design gives children significant control over parental monitoring features, permits unscreened messages from adult users under certain settings and misrepresented the effectiveness of its child safety measures. According to the attorney general’s office, Discord’s own transparency reports showed child safety violations on the platform increased by 150% during a single quarter.
Griffin’s office further alleges the two platforms function together in a way that allows predators to first contact children on Roblox before moving conversations to Discord, where investigators claim grooming, sextortion and arrangements for in-person meetings have occurred. The state contends both companies were aware of these risks while continuing to integrate features that connected users across the two services.
In announcing the lawsuits, Griffin said the state’s position is that both companies prioritized user engagement and profits over protections for children and families. He also acknowledged the work of Arkansas law enforcement agencies and the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division in developing the case.
Roblox has reached out to Deltaplex News with this statement:
“Roblox is deeply committed to fostering a safe, healthy, and age-appropriate environment for our community. We strongly dispute the claims in this lawsuit filed by the Attorney General of Arkansas in Los Angeles County, California. It fundamentally misrepresents how our platform works and fails to recognize the extensive, proactive measures we are taking to set a new standard in online safety. As part of our ongoing work to strengthen user protections, Roblox recently became the first online gaming platform to require age checks for all users to access chat features so that younger users are limited to chatting with similarly aged users by default. Additionally, we recently launched new age-based accounts that automatically match our youngest users to a dynamically updated catalog of content containing select games rated for their age group, further aligning content access and parental controls with a user’s age.
When we identify violations of our rules, we take swift action and work closely with law enforcement to help hold bad actors accountable. While no system can be perfect, we are constantly strengthening our user protections, and we look forward to working collaboratively with Attorney General Griffin to help keep kids safe online.” ~ Roblox Spokesperson
