Summary
12-06-2025 Update:Roblox has contacted TheGamer to dispute the Bloomberg report. Statements from a spokesperson have been added throughout.
ARobloxmoderator says that her team receives “hundreds” of reports about child safety every day. She adds that this is too much for the moderation team to handle, a problem which may worsen as Roblox’s playerbase increases.
This comes from a new report into Roblox’s handling of predators and child abuse, courtesy ofBloomberg. The report contains testimony from more than 20 current and former members of staff, many of which raise concerns over Roblox’s ability to keep its largely underage playerbase safe.
One of these sources, a worker from the moderation department, says that her team received hundreds of reports every single day concerning child safety. Bloomberg also states that Roblox reported 13,316 cases of child exploitation to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2023, up from 2,973 in 2022.
Speaking with TheGamer, a spokesperson from Roblox said the following: “[This] doesn’t clarify the scale as compared to other platforms referenced in the Bloomberg story. NCMEC’s CyberTipline in 2023 received more than 36.2 million reports, with the vast majority referring to incidents of suspected child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Roblox contributed less than .04 percent of that report total.”
The spokesperson also commented on the claim that “hundreds” of reports are sent to the moderation team every day. “Bloomberg fails to provide context on the scale of these reported incidents vis-a-vis the amount of content on the platform and growing user base of 77 million daily active users,” the say. “In a single quarter, Roblox users generated and uploaded approximately 205 billion total pieces of content.”
As per the report, other employees - all of which spoke to reporters anonymously - are also concerned that Roblox is not doing enough to tackle the issue of adults using its services to prey on children. Eight employees even argued that Roblox values growth over safety, saying that their ideas on how to counter the issue have been rejected, and their requests for more resources denied. Roblox denies this, saying that it is always considering new ideas.
Predatory Roblox Users Have Been An Issue For Years
Over the years, Roblox has become well known for having a significantly young user base, with high-profile cases of predators using it to speak with children. The Roblox Corporation has faced multiple lawsuits over this,including one in 2022in which the service was accused of enabling the sexual and financial exploitation of a child.
The Bloomberg report itself centres aroundthe case of Arnold Castillo, who met with and abused a child that he communicated with through Roblox andDiscord. Castillo was also the lead developer on the Roblox game Sonic Eclipse Online, which was also developed by multiple children that Castillo communicated with via a Discord server.
In response to the report, Roblox says that it has a zero-tolerance approach to predatory behaviour. However, Roblox’s chief safety officer, Matt Kaufman also says, “Tens of millions of people of all ages have a safe and positive experience on Roblox every single day.”
Speaking with TheGamer, a Roblox spokesperson further disputes Bloomberg’s findings. “A recent article contained glaring mischaracterizations about how we protect users of all ages on the platform and failed to reflect both the complexities of online child safety and the realities of the overwhelmingly positive experiences that tens of millions of people of all ages have on Roblox every single day,” says the spokesperson.
“We wanted to take this opportunity to set the record straight and reaffirm our ironclad commitment to keeping Roblox safe. Seeherefor additional information.”
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