Report from the TechCrunch
In Brief – The Attorney General of Louisiana has filed a lawsuit against Roblox, a vast platform of user-generated games and interactive experiences, accusing the company of failing to protect children and making the site the “perfect place for pedophiles.” The lawsuit alleges that Roblox “has and continues to facilitate the distribution of child sexual abuse material and the sexual exploitation of Louisiana’s children” and accuses the platform of purposely not implementing basic safety controls to protect children from predators and failing to notify parents of risks. Roblox was launched in 2006 and is reported to have 82 million daily active users, many under age 12. Attorney General Liz Murrill criticized the lack of age verification by the site, which includes games and experiences of an adult nature, and alleged that child predators have used the site to trade child pornography and lure young users. Last year, Roblox launched several new safety measures, including barring users under the age of 13 from sending direct messages, and in July they announced that they would begin rolling out technical age verification linked to their age-based rules.
Context – Age limits and verification are spreading across major markets. Pornography and child sexual abuse are often the first targets. However, there is often pressure to extend them more widely. Social media is a most popular target. Per the UK’s Online Safety Act, Bluesky and Reddit recently announced such a move. French President Macron has called for a 15-year-old age limit for social media with age checks. Many US states are enacting age-based restrictions on social media and most face skeptical federal judges, but the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently allowed Mississippi’s law to stand, and the Supreme Court rejected a motion to quickly overturn it. And more types of services are being implicated. Australia’s 16-year-old age limit for social media goes into effect in December and they are also going to age check search engines. Not only will Roblox be checking ages in the UK, but Microsoft’s Xbox Live also will make age verification mandatory in the UK next year.