Kentucky Sues Roblox Over Child Safety Failures
It could intensify the growing legal scrutiny of Roblox’s safety record as regulators question how well it protects millions of young players.
Roblox has long branded itself as the colorful, Lego-like playground of the internet, a space where children can build worlds, play games, and connect with friends. But that image is facing its toughest test yet. On Monday, Kentucky’s Attorney General Russell Coleman filed a civil lawsuit accusing the company of failing to protect its youngest players.
The lawsuit alleges that Roblox’s sign-up process, which only requires a birthday, username, and password, leaves children vulnerable to predators, explicit content, and exploitation. It’s a sharp contrast to the company’s carefully maintained “family-friendly” reputation.
Roblox’s reach helps explain the concern. About 85 million people log on every day, more than half of them under 17 and roughly one in five under 10. That massive audience has made Roblox one of gaming’s most profitable companies, generating $3.6 billion in revenue last year, mostly from sales of its in-game currency, Robux. But regulators and parents say that success has come with serious trade-offs in safety.
Oluwaseun Bamisile
Kentucky’s complaint draws on a series of disturbing incidents that have surfaced in recent years. In California, a man was charged with kidnapping a 10-year-old he met through the platform. In Georgia, a mother said her nine-year-old son was coerced into sending explicit images. And in New Jersey, a parent claimed her 11-year-old daughter was pulled into graphic exchanges that started on Roblox before moving to Discord. Together, these cases suggest a pattern of vulnerabilities that Roblox hasn’t fully addressed.
The problem extends beyond predatory behavior. After conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death last month, Roblox users created dozens of violent games simulating his assassination. The company removed more than 100 of them for breaking content rules, but not before some were briefly accessible to children. For critics, the episode showed how easily Roblox’s open, user-driven ecosystem can spiral out of control.
Kentucky isn’t the first state to take action. Louisiana filed a similar lawsuit earlier this year, and families across the United States have launched cases of their own. The growing list of legal challenges signals a broader shift in how regulators view Roblox—not just as a game platform but as a global company struggling to manage the risks that come with scale.
Roblox says it enforces community standards and continues to invest in stronger moderation and safety tools. Still, the lawsuits highlight how fragile its child-safe image has become. For one of the world’s biggest gaming companies, the challenge now is less about growth and more about proving it can keep its youngest users safe.
Oluwaseun Bamisile
