FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 20, 2026

CONTACT: Ashwin Verghese, [email protected], 508-263-0289

Investigate Roblox for Harming Kids, Advocacy Groups Urge FTC

Fairplay and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) filed a request today for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the wildly popular online gaming platform Roblox. Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation Movement, ParentsSOS, the Consumer Federation of America, and other groups are also supporting the request.

The Request for Investigation states that Roblox — which said last year that over 30 million of its daily users are children under age 13 — is violating Section 5 of the FTC Act by committing unfair and deceptive acts and practices at the expense of children’s safety and well-being.

Read the Request for Investigation.

Those violations center around engagement-maximizing design features, a virtual currency system, and voice and text chats that are “developmentally inappropriate for the platform’s massive young user base and pose a substantial risk of harm,” according to the request. These deliberate design decisions made by Roblox impact children’s short- and long-term mental health, self-esteem, and overall healthy development, in some cases even leading to suicide.

The request provides a number of shocking stories about kids’ experiences on Roblox, including a long list of children who were groomed, exploited, and abused by adults they met on the platform, as well as incidents where parents discovered hundreds or even thousands of dollars in unexpected Roblox charges.

In addition, the request shares examples of sexual references and racial slurs that Fairplay’s and NCOSE’s researchers quickly encountered when they joined Roblox using test accounts registered as children.

The request also calls on the FTC to scrutinize whether Roblox is complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

The request notes that Roblox earned $3.6 billion in revenue in 2024, up from $2.8 billion the year before. Roblox’s engagement also increased by nearly 50% percent in three years, from 49.3 billion hours of user engagement in 2022 to 73.5 billion hours in 2024.

Those big profits and engagement hours were facilitated by the platform’s unfair design practices and acts, the request says.

The request breaks down Roblox’s violations into three areas:

1. Virtual Currency and Assets — To buy in-game items, Roblox forces users to purchase “Robux” and other in-game currencies that have widely fluctuating exchange rates with the US dollar. As a result, children, who lack the ability to perform complicated financial calculations, are unable to know how much they are truly spending on the platform.
2. Engagement-Maximizing Design Features — Roblox uses gambling-like features, scarcity marketing, and time-based rewards (which incentivize daily use of the platform) to keep kids hooked. It also exploits children’s proclivity for social comparison to get them to spend more money by making it easy for them to see what virtual items other Roblox users own.
3. Voice and Text Chat — Despite its deceptive claims about the platform’s safety, Roblox facilitates predation and abuse by enabling adult contact with minors. These harms have persisted for years, and recent changes by the platform have not eliminated opportunities for adult-minor contact.

“As Roblox makes millions of dollars from children’s activity on the platform, it exposes them to a maze of complex financial and marketing mechanisms that prey upon their developmental sensitivities and far exceed their understanding of financial concepts and statistics,” the request says. “All the while, harmful adults can groom and exploit children — while Roblox has made recent attempts to age gate certain voice and text chat capabilities, these measures contain significant loopholes.

“We urge the FTC to investigate and to protect the millions of children across the country who use Roblox.”

Statements

Alongside Fairplay and NCOSE, the Request for Investigation has been endorsed by ParentsSOS, a network of survivor families whose children have died as a result of online harms, as well as the Center for Digital Democracy, the Consumer Federation of America, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Institute for Families and Technology, and Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation Movement.

Fairplay Policy Counsel Haley Hinkle said: “Roblox claims it is safe and developmentally appropriate for children. Our filing shows that that is simply not true. And given that over 30 million kids under age 13 are reportedly daily users of the platform, our request for an investigation is urgent.

“The FTC has the authority to stop Roblox from raking in billions of dollars in profit every year at the expense of our children’s safety and healthy development. We call on the commission to investigate Roblox’s unfair and deceptive acts and practices, and to scrutinize the platform’s compliance with children’s online privacy law.”

National Center on Sexual Exploitation Executive Director and Chief Strategy Officer Haley McNamara said: “Children have been contacted and groomed by predators, exposed to sexually graphic material, sextorted, and abused on Roblox, a highly popular gaming platform where over 50% of their users are under the age of 17. Despite our warnings over the years, Roblox refused to make changes to protect children from harm, only recently making some design changes to prevent unknown adults from contacting children. Roblox has a history of harm and callousness towards children and concerned parents, and must be investigated by the FTC for the sake of children worldwide.”

The Anxious Generation Senior Policy Director Casey Mock said: “When a company earns $3.6 billion in a single year from children, and 40% of its daily users are under 13, it has obligations to families that go well beyond what its Terms of Service may say — an obligation, at a minimum, to design a safe product. The evidence is clearly presented in this complaint that Roblox has consistently chosen profit over that obligation.”

Heather Lindquist alleges that her 15-year-old son, Bodhi, was groomed by predators on Roblox. Bodhi died in December, most likely after taking part in a viral challenge in school after being offline for a year and a half. Lindquist said: “Roblox assures parents like me that our kids are safe on its platform. But the parental controls on Roblox did not protect my son. He was able to get around any protections, and his experience of grooming deeply affected his mental state. All children deserve to be safe in online games. They should not have to navigate predators who can destroy their innocence and even cost them their lives. I join Fairplay and NCOSE in urging the FTC to investigate.”

Read the Request for Investigation.

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About Fairplay

Fairplay is the leading nonprofit committed to helping children thrive in an increasingly commercialized, screen-obsessed culture, and the only organization dedicated to ending marketing to children. Fairplay works to enhance children’s well-being by eliminating the exploitative and harmful business practices of marketers and Big Tech. Learn more at www.fairplayforkids.org.