Roblox under fire from Florida attorney general who issued criminal subpoenas for game that ‘has become a breeding ground for predators’

Florida attorney general James Uthmeier says his office will be issuing criminal subpoenas to Roblox, which he says “profited off of our kids while exposing them to the most dangerous of harms.”

Uthmeier explained how the subpoenas will enable his office “to gather more information for our prosecutors about the criminal activity taking place on Roblox’s platform, as well as evidence on the predators that are out there and the victims that are abused.”

“They enabled our kids to be abused,” he said in a statement on Twitter/X this morning. “Companies like Roblox have become breeding grounds for predators to get to an have access to our kids.”

Florida is now at least the second state to put Roblox in its crosshairs, joining Louisiana which filed a lawsuit against Roblox Corporation in August. In the suit, Louisiana said Roblox “has directly facilitated the widespread sexual exploitation of minors and inflicted severe, lasting harm upon the children of Louisiana.”

The metaverse-like platform is massively popular with young kids, which makes it a natural target for child predators, the suits claim.

“At the end of the day, we will stop at nothing to fight to protect our kids and companies that act carelessly and expose them to harm will be held accountable,” he said.

Update on Oct. 20 at 9:25pm CT: A Roblox spokesperson has reached out to Destructoid and provided the following statement:

“Attorney General Uthmeier’s claims about Roblox are false, and the suggestion that illicit image sharing is happening on Roblox demonstrates a lack of understanding of our platform’s functionality. In fact, we prohibit the sharing of images and videos in chat, use filters designed to block the exchange of personal information, and our trained teams and automated tools continuously monitor communications to detect and remove harmful content. 

We are also working to implement age estimation for all users accessing chat features. We share the AG’s commitment to keeping kids safe and we will continue to assist his office in their investigations. We have a strong record of working with law enforcement and investing in advanced safety systems to help protect our users and remove bad actors.”

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