The Ken Paxton-led Office of the Attorney General of Texas has filed a sweeping lawsuit against the online gaming platform Roblox Corporation, alleging that the company repeatedly misled parents and exposed children to risk. According to the complaint, Roblox marketed itself as a safe creative space for minors, yet “flagrantly ignored state and federal online safety laws while deceiving parents about the dangers of its platform.”
Moreover, the suit contends that the platform became “a breeding ground for predators,” citing dozens of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigations, criminal convictions, and private lawsuits in which children encountered grooming, sexual exploitation, and explicit content via Roblox.
Notably, Texas has become the third U.S. state, after Kentucky and Louisiana, to sue Roblox, thereby widening the regulatory spotlight on child safety within online gaming ecosystems.
Roblox, meanwhile, maintains that it “shares Attorney General Paxton’s commitment to keeping kids and teens safe online” and that it has deployed what it describes as “industry-leading protocols.” However, the company characterized the lawsuit as based on “misrepresentations and sensationalized claims.”
Marketing to Children and Weak Parental Controls
Roblox has positioned itself for years as a platform built for children, yet the lawsuit argues that its marketing and parental controls create a false sense of safety for families. The petition notes that Roblox was “created for children” and advertised as the “#1 gaming site for kids and teens,” with most of its 80 million daily users under the age of eighteen.
As many as two-thirds of American children aged nine to twelve hold Roblox accounts, a reach that, according to Texas, makes robust protections essential. Nevertheless, Roblox reassured parents that it takes “every precaution possible,” even though internal evidence allegedly contradicts these assurances.
Moreover, the state argues that the platform’s parental controls are ineffective by design. Children of any age can create an account in under a minute by entering only a birthday, username, and password. Roblox requires no verified email, no phone number, and no parental confirmation, meaning parents often do not even know their children are on the platform.
Parental controls, which are switched off by default, therefore become “entirely useless” for many families.
Even when activated, they still do not allow parents to see who is contacting their child or what messages contain, leaving a core vulnerability unaddressed: adults can continue to communicate with children inside games and experiences.
Additionally, Texas claims Roblox rejected basic safety measures that would have strengthened parental oversight. The company did not require parental approval for under-13 users, despite the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) obligations, and refused to…
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