Roblox Reports Over 13,000 Child Exploitation Cases in 2023

Roblox reported over 13,000 cases of child exploitation last year, according to a recent Bloomberg investigation. The popular online game platform has faced criticism for not doing enough to protect its young users.

Last year, Roblox reported 13,316 instances of child exploitation to US authorities. They also responded to over 1,300 requests from authorities about predatory players. Since 2018, at least 24 people in the US have been arrested for abusing victims they met on Roblox.

A notable case involved Arnold Castillo, also known as DoctorRofatnik. Castillo ran a successful Sonic the Hedgehog rip-off game on Roblox. He earned tens of thousands of dollars and had many young fans. Despite reports of inappropriate contact with players as young as 12, Castillo was only caught after a 15-year-old girl he groomed went missing. Castillo is now serving a 15-year sentence for grooming and abusing the child.

Roblox’s Response

Roblox’s chief safety officer, Matt Kaufman, responded to the Bloomberg report. He stated that the article misrepresented how Roblox protects its users. Kaufman emphasized that safety and civility are foundational to Roblox’s platform.

Roblox employs 3,000 human moderators and uses AI to filter 50,000 chat messages a second. Despite these efforts, some employees claim the company prioritizes growth over user safety. They say there’s a backlog of safety incident reports and calls for more resources have been ignored.

Roblox has taken steps to improve safety, including appointing new child safety investigators and establishing a child exploitation moderation team. They also plan to update content labeling to help parents control what their children access on the platform.