The case takes aim at online safety for children, saying: "What Roblox represents as a safe, appropriate space for children is, in fact, a digital and real-life nightmare for kids."
At a Glance
- Roblox and Discord are being sued by an anonymous plaintiff for allegedly enabling the sexual abuse of a minor.
- The lawsuit accuses the companies of not doing enough to protect young users while stating they prioritize child safety.
Content note: This story contains discussions of children being propositioned for sexual actions and receiving sexual messages, as well as self-harm.
Roblox Corporation and Discord are facing a new lawsuit over allegations that each company facilitated the sexual harassment and exploitation of a minor across both Roblox and Discord. The lawsuit was filed in California on behalf of an underage plaintiff referred to as as 'Jane Doe', and takes aim at both platforms for allegedly enabling an accused sexual predator to harass and exploit Doe during interactions on each.
It notably concerns not only how Discord and Roblox's system allegedly allowed for this interaction to take place, but also explores the action the two companies could've take to prevent situations like the one at the center of this lawsuit from happening. Additionally, the suit challenges the two companies' messaging on user safety, implying they knowingly make promises they can't keep.
This case, filed on April 21, 2025, accuses the two companies of "facilitating the sexual exploitation" of the plaintiff as the direct result of lax safety standards and misrepresentation of safety protocols to parents. It follows years of investigations about the risks of child sexual abuse on Roblox, and details how the failings reported in those investigations may have contributed to the harm of the minor.
Roblox has faced lawsuits over child safety in the past, but this appears to be the first lawsuit that levies accusations on both Roblox and Discord. According to the lawsuit, Doe's parents became aware she was being sexually exploited by an individual described in the lawsuit as a "known predator" through Roblox and Discord in 2022. That individual allegedly targeted her through two games within the wider Roblox ecosystem, Mic Up and Write A Letter, and was able to send her messages through the "whisper" function even though her Roblox account "clearly displayed" she was a minor.
In time, the plaintiff was convinced to share her Discord username with the accused predator, leading to conversations on the popular chat platform where she was then coerced into sending sexually explicit images. These events took place over the course of six months.
According to the lawsuit, Doe's parents were aware of the safety tools and resources intended to keep minors safe on Roblox but allege that the materials fall short. The lawsuit accuses both companies of failing to implement strong safety procedures and, beyond that, of misrepresenting the safety of their platforms to parents in order to maximize revenue, specifically describing how the plaintiff's father reviewed the Roblox Parent's Guide before letting her use the platform and allowing her to play online. Following the incident and after her father blocked her from accessing Discord and Roblox, the plaintiff reportedly attempted suicide.
Are Roblox and Discord as safe as they claim?
The lawsuit filed against Roblox and Discord dedicates several pages to the claims both companies have previously made about safety on each of their platforms, going as far as to call out executives like Roblox Corporation CEO David Baszucki by name for statements made to the press. Roblox vice president of civility & partnerships Tami Bhaumik is likewise singled out for comments made in 2024 to Parents Magazine that state the company has "a responsibility to make sure players can learn, create, and play safely. This continues to be our most important priority and that will never change."
Comments from chief safety officer Matt Kaufman are spotlighted as well, with Kaufman previously telling NPR that "any time anything happens to a child that puts them at risk is one [time] too many." The lawsuit positions these statements alongside contrasting documented allegations of sexually abusive activity that have allegedly taken place on Roblox, including a recent report by Hindenberg Research scrutinizing a number of games on the platform that mimicked the alleged sexual abuse of music mogul P. Diddy.
Former Discord CEO Jason Zitron (erroneously identified as Eric Citron in the suit) is cited within the filing as telling U.S. Congress in 2024 that Discord "has a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate sexual conduct with children, meaning inappropriate sexual contact between adults and teens on the service, with special attention given to predatory behaviors such as online enticement and the sexual extortion of children, commonly referred to as 'sextortion.'"
These comments within the lawsuit are again paired against documentation of Discord content that goes against those stated policies, such as graphic imagery that includes documented child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The company is criticized for making several of its default safety features "opt-in" instead of "opt-out", with the suit also arguing that embedded Discord features on the Roblox platform further facilitates abuse across both platforms.
The lawsuit suggests that both companies could improve safety by improving age verification to prevent underage users from creating accounts without their parents' permission and requiring users to provide real names when registering for an account. Discord is specifically criticized for not allowing family-connected account admins to have access to the contents of messages for children's accounts.
Combined, the criticisms against Roblox and Discord are pertinent to the personal experience described by the plaintiff, who is now asking for a jury to weigh in on the years-long contention that popular online platforms are not doing enough to protect children. The outcome could decide the fate of both companies, and have implications for other companies making online games.
Game Developer has reached out to Roblox Corporation and Discord for comment and will update this story when a response is issued.