FRANKFORT, Ky.-- FRANKFORT, Ky.
(AP) — Kentucky's attorney general claimed Tuesday that the online gaming platform Roblox has become a “playground for predators” as he announced a lawsuit accusing the company of lax child safety measures.The Kentucky suit, filed by his office Monday in a state court, is the latest action alleging that the wildly popular site isn’t doing enough to protect children on its gaming services.To bolster safeguards for children and teenagers flocking to the site, the company needs to install effective age verifications and content filters, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said.Added parental notifications also are needed, he said.Courtney Norris, a Kentucky mother of three who joined Coleman at a news conference, said she mistakenly viewed Roblox as a safe online gaming choice for her children."I came to realize, later than I would like to admit, that it actually is the ‘Wild West’ of the internet, targeted at children,” she said.The company is facing a growing backlash.
The Kentucky suit comes after Louisiana sued the company in August.A suit was filed in Iowa after a 13-year-old girl was allegedly introduced to an adult predator on the platform, then kidnapped and trafficked across multiple states and raped.Roblox on Tuesday pushed back against the allegations.“We have rigorous safety measures in place from advanced AI models to an expertly trained team of thousands moderating our platform 24/7 for inappropriate content,” the company said in a statement.
"No system is perfect and our work on safety is never done.We are constantly innovating our safety systems, including adding 100 new safeguards, such as facial age estimation, this year alone.”Roblox says it has 111 million daily active users.
The company said in an email Tuesday that it implements strict safety defaults for its youngest users.It said the platform's users under 13 cannot directly message others on Roblox, outside of games or experiences, ...