Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has filed a lawsuit against Roblox Corporation and Discord Inc., alleging the companies knowingly profited while exposing children to online dangers and misleading parents about the safety of their platforms.
The lawsuit alleges Roblox and Discord created and maintained systems that allowed predators to target children while prioritizing user engagement and profits over child safety.
Griffin announced the legal action Monday, calling Roblox and Discord two of the most frequently cited platforms in federal child exploitation prosecutions.
“These companies didn’t stumble into a child safety problem. They engineered one,” Griffin said. “Roblox built a platform with no age verification, no meaningful parental consent, and an algorithm that routed children directly toward the spaces where predators were waiting. Discord built a platform that lets children override parental monitoring with a single tap and hands anonymous strangers direct access to kids.”
According to the complaint, Roblox reports 144 million daily active users, with approximately 40 percent under the age of 13. The lawsuit alleges Roblox failed to implement available age-verification tools, rejected proposals to warn children about grooming behavior and allowed sexually explicit content to remain widespread across the platform.
The complaint also cites reports submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that allegedly documented 675 suspected child sexual exploitation incidents in 2019, rising to more than 13,000 by 2023.
The lawsuit further alleges Discord served as a secondary platform where predators continued communications with children after initial contact was established elsewhere. State officials claim Discord’s design gave children the ability to bypass parental monitoring while allowing unscreened messages from adult users.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, Roblox and Discord functioned together as a two-stage pipeline in which predators could identify, groom and communicate with victims.
The lawsuit was filed under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Arkansas public nuisance law and common law unjust enrichment. The state is seeking injunctive relief, monetary damages and the return of profits allegedly derived from Arkansas consumers.
Griffin thanked Arkansas law enforcement officers and the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General’s Office for their work on the case.
The allegations contained in the lawsuit have been filed by the State of Arkansas. Roblox and Discord will have the opportunity to respond to the claims in court.
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