Roblox reported more than 13,000 incidents of child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2023, and around 24 predators were arrested for grooming and abusing victims on the hugely popular social gaming platform in the US.
This figure represents an increase compared to the 3,000 of the previous year.
Roblox has around 77 million players every day, 40% of whom are under the age of 13. And because it's available on PlayStation, PC, and a host of mobile devices, it's also incredibly accessible for kids.
However, according to Bloomberg, despite responding to 1,300 law enforcement requests for details on predatory players, several prolific abusers were allegedly able to evade detection on the platform, including Arnold “DoctorRofatnik” Castillo, who ran the phenomenally successful Sonic Eclipse Online.
It was only after sending an Uber to pick up a 15-year-old girl 700 miles away that Castillo was finally caught and sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexual harassment and abuse.
Roblox says it has spent “nearly two decades making the platform one of the safest online environments for our users, particularly younger users,” and said in a statement to our sister site Eurogamer that Bloomberg's report contained “glaring mischaracterizations about how it protects users of all ages” and “fails to reflect both the complexities of child online safety and the realities of the overwhelmingly positive experiences tens of millions of people of all ages have on Roblox every day.”
“As our platform evolves and scales, forging a new future for communication and connection, our investment in preventative safety measures remains critical,” Roblox Chief Security Officer Matt Kaufman said in a lengthy response to Bloomberg's findings.
“To be the best in the world at delivering safe and respectful online experiences, this is essential. With each passing year, we implement new strategies and technologies to achieve improvements in the speed and effectiveness of our security and moderation systems.
Kaufman added that “only 0.0063% of (its) total content was flagged as violating our policies around topics like harassment, hate speech, and violent extremism through our detection and reporting systems.”
“We continually measure a wide range of internal metrics, using automated and human systems, covering everything from harassment to inappropriate language,” Kaufman continued.
“This approach guides our work to foster safer, more civil interactions online, and at the most basic level, it means we can say that safety issues are not widespread or systemic at Roblox. And commitment to this work is critical – we are all part of families, and we know that even a single incident involving the health or safety of children is horrific. We deeply sympathize with the families and individuals who have been affected.
“We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure the safety of our users and remain vigilant against malicious actors who may attempt to circumvent our security systems. And we also recognize that this critical work is never done,” he concluded.
“We are committed to continually investing and adapting to address the changing threat landscape and keep our community safe. We are already working on the next generation of security tools and features as we look to continue leading the future of online safety and civility.”