The US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism has launched an investigation into Roblox, saying the platform “appears to prioritise revenue and engagement metrics” over child safety.
In a letter to Roblox CEO David Baszucki (via Kotaku), Senators Josh Hawley and Dick Durbin said the “alleged criminal activity on Roblox warrants congressional scrutiny.”
“You trumpet Roblox as a safe digital playground for children as young as five,” the senators wrote. “But the public record raises serious questions about this promise of safety.”
In a statement to PC Gamer, Roblox chief safety officer Matt Kaufman said the platform is “built on the foundation of safety.”
“We do not compromise on that commitment. We look forward to sharing the facts about how we work to protect children on the platform.”
Roblox has been told to provide records about child safety, sexual or physical abuse, bullying, and financial exploitation. The company must submit these documents by August 31, 2026.
The committee has asked Roblox for almost 30 types of documents and data. This includes the number of reports received in 2023, 2024, and 2025 “concerning sexual exploitation, predation, or abuse of users under 18,” how Roblox responds to these reports, and how many accounts were reported for this behaviour during these years.
It is also seeking details on what percentage of these allegations were reviewed by people, what percentage of reported accounts were banned, how many bullying reports involved users under 18 in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and the related investigation and ban rates.
“Over the past decade, police have arrested numerous individuals for committing serious acts of violence and harm against children they met via Roblox, including grooming, sexual abuse, kidnapping, rape, and even murder,” the letter continued.
The committee also noted that Roblox reported over 65,000 suspected child exploitation cases to the National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children in 2025, more than double the number in 2024.
“Roblox is being used to trade child sexual abuse material, participate in sexually explicit (and often violent) virtual ‘experiences’ with children, bribe and extort children into producing explicit content, and lure children into in-person meetings. It is heartbreaking.”
“Let us be clear: children on your platform are hurting. Congress will not look the other way.”
Several US states, including Louisiana and Los Angeles County, have sued Roblox over concerns about child endangerment.
The Australian government has also raised similar issues, saying they are “of deep concern to many Australian parents and carers.”
In recent years, Roblox has added various new safety measures. These include protections to stop users under 13 from using direct messaging, global facial recognition checks, a “sensitive issues” content tag for its experiences feature, and stronger moderation policies and actions.
