Iowa family sues Roblox, alleging gaming platform enables child sexual exploitation after kidnapped child found in Jefferson County
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Tenn. — An Iowa family is suing Roblox Corporation, alleging the gaming company routinely facilitates the sexual exploitation and abuse of children. This lawsuit comes after a 13-year-old girl who was missing from Iowa was found in Jefferson County over the summer.
Thirty-seven-year-old Martin Amaya Sandoval Jr. of New Market is charged with four counts of aggravated statutory rape after kidnapping the girl from Des Moines and taking her back to his home in Jefferson County, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said.
According to court records, Sandoval admitted to having sex with the minor "on and off, making it four times in total."
According to investigators, Sandoval was talking to the 13-year-old via Snapchat and Instagram. The girl was initially reported missing from her home in Iowa on May 24 after last being seen around 11:30 p.m., according to our Iowa sister station, WOI.
Roblox, an online platform and game creation system, is free to download and play across a variety of devices. The platform draws millions of daily active users, primarily kids and teens, to play games and interact with others in a shared virtual environment.
The lawsuit asserts that a 13-year-old was groomed by an adult they met on Roblox for several months. The grooming eventually led to the child being kidnapped from a home in West Des Moines and trafficked across multiple states, where they were "repeatedly sexually abused and raped."
“It was a case where another adult pretending to be a kid was grooming and building a rapport with a minor," Martin Gould, one of the family's lawyers, said. "[He] essentially got them to come outside their home as part of this ongoing grooming and kidnapped them.”
The suit alleges that Roblox failed to implement adequate safety features into the app, such as age-verification screening.
"Roblox was (and still is) a haven for adult sexual predators and pedophiles who use the unreasonably dangerous and negligently designed app to gain access to and prey upon thousands of unsuspecting children, resulting in countless children being groomed, exploited, sexually abused, and even kidnapped and raped," the lawsuit reads in part.
Now, the family is seeking damages from Roblox. And they're not the only one. Their lawsuit is one of over 250 the SGGH and Milberg Law Firms are taking up against the platform. They argue there's not enough regulation involved.
“Whenever you deal with something that you know is so accessible to millions and millions of minors, there need to be safety precautions that are the standard of care. That's what this is all about," said Mike Grieco, another lawyer on the case.
In a statement to 10News affiliate Local 5, Roblox said in part, "Roblox is deeply committed to the safety and well-being of our community, with tens of millions having positive experiences every day. Protecting children is a top priority, and we invest significant resources in advanced safety technology, including a combination of machine learning and human moderation teams working 24/7 to detect and address inappropriate content and behavior."
A spokesperson for Roblox shared several steps the company has taken to increase safety on the platform, including:
- 24/7 monitoring for inappropriate content
- Partnering with law enforcement to combat the sexual exploitation of children
- Suspending or removing users who violate Community Standards
- Removing offensive material and accounts through AI scans, user flags and "proactive monitoring"
- Preventing users under 13 years of age from directly messaging people on Roblox outside games or experiences
Just last month, Roblox announced a new range of safety features, including age estimation technology that uses AI to guess a user's age.
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