Attorney General JB McCuskey announced today an $11 million settlement with Roblox. As part of the agreement, the kids gaming company will fundamentally overhaul how it protects children -- including mandatory age verification, restricted adult-to-child chat, default safe-content settings for all users under 16 and safety training for West Virginia families and law enforcement.
"I have two young daughters who love Roblox, so I know how popular it is, but our investigation found serious failures that left children exposed to real danger. This settlement changes that," Attorney General McCuskey said. "Roblox will now verify who its users are, limit who can contact children, and block inappropriate content by default. I am thankful that Roblox took our concerns seriously and worked with us to make these major safety changes. This is a win not only for West Virginia families, but for all kids who play on the app. "
The investigation found that Roblox's historical safety design allowed child users to be exposed to sexual predators, grooming, and sexual and violent content, putting every child on the platform at risk.
Under the settlement, Roblox must:
- Verify the age of all users before granting chat access, reducing grooming risk and limiting adult-to-minor contact.
- Block all chat until age verification is complete, eliminating anonymous accounts that predators use to target children.
- Restrict adults from contacting users under 16 except through verified trusted friends, cutting off unsolicited adult-to-minor contact.
- Alert minors the first time they enter a private chat, so children know how to communicate safely.
- Default all under-16 and unverified users to safe content mode, blocking adult-rated material proactively.
- Dedicate a West Virginia-based internet safety specialist to coordinate directly with state law enforcement and conduct ongoing trainings.
The $11,080,000 settlement will be paid out over several years. Part of the funds will be used for safety efforts specific to West Virginia -- $500,000 in safety education workshops for parents and children throughout the state, a $1.5 million three-year public safety campaign, and $2.4 million over six years for the dedicated internet safety specialist.
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