By: Minka Koskinen
September 10, 2025


If you’ve never played Roblox, which has more than 78 million daily active users, chances are you either know someone who does or have a child in your life who plays. At first glance, Roblox seems like a fun and harmless game, a blend of Minecraft and Lego designed for kids just learning to read. According to Roblox’s own data, 40% of its global player base is under the age of 13. In numbers, that’s approximately 39.7 million children playing every day. 

Many are unaware of what Roblox is; they believe it is just a game, however that isn’t the case. It’s a massive online platform where millions of children interact daily, often unsupervised. Parents aren’t always equipped to understand the risks, especially when even members of Congress struggle to grasp how online platforms function. That combination has created the perfect hunting ground for predators. Roblox, like many tech companies, has prioritized explosive growth; Roblox’s reported end-of-year 2024 revenue was $3.6 billion.

What is Roblox, and what is Robux?

Roblox describes itself as “an online game platform and game creation system.” In plain essence, that means Roblox isn’t really a single game at all, rather, it’s a storefront for games created within its own ecosystem. Roblox calls these “experiences,” but for clarity, we’ll stick with “games.” This distinction makes talking about Roblox confusing, especially for parents trying to understand what their children are playing. 

Many assume Roblox is a sandbox where players build servers and minigames. Anyone can use Roblox’s developer tools to create a game, then publish it to the marketplace for others to play. Roblox itself is not a game; it is a platform where people build, share, and sell games. Every game is built with Roblox’s tools, which utilize the Roblox cartoon aesthetic that draws kids in. 

That brings us to Robux: the platform’s premium currency. Robux can only be purchased with real-world money. Children use it to buy cosmetics, access certain games, or unlock special features within games. Unless you’re a developer earning Robux through your creations, the only way to get them is by asking your parents to pay up. For Roblox, this turns child enthusiasm into a revenue machine. One that keeps children hooked and their parents’ wallets open.

Child Exploitation, Sex “Condo” Games, and Moderation

Roblox isn’t just a platform full of blocky games, it’s also a massive social network where kids can chat, add friends, and roleplay with strangers. These features are exactly what predators exploit. It starts small: a friendly chat in a game lobby, maybe a request to join a private server. From there, predators slowly push boundaries, gaining children’s trust and creating familiarity. They ask about personal details, coaxing kids to move conversations to external apps, making the children view them as a friend. In some cases, it escalates into sextortion: threats to release compromising material unless the child complies with the predator’s demands, as with this case. Minnesota’s local FBI branch actually has a specialized task team that investigates these types of crime.

A disturbing reality is the rise of “sex condo” games. These are user-created, sexually explicit roleplay games that are created and sold on Roblox’s platform. These games are often disguised, and children, unaware of the content, easily fall into these games. These games create the perfect arena for predators to exploit them. This leads to exploitation and grooming, where it is easy to get the children to move the interaction off-platform. Despite Roblox’s rules against sexual content, these games frequently slip through moderation due to coded language, misleading titles, and/or in-game mechanics. 

Roblox has and utilizes moderation tools. Tools such as filters, block buttons, and reporting systems exist on the platform. However, anyone who’s spent more than five minutes online knows filters can be bypassed, reports take time, and predators only need one loophole. With millions of daily interactions, Roblox can’t police everything in real time. Roblox projects to have $4.39 billion in revenue in 2025. While they have invested more in improving their safety teams and systems, they have also lined the pockets of the owner, David Baszucki, whose net worth is at least $1.3 billion as of late August 2025. Additionally, Roblox themselves have stated that they will be working with the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) to allow for the games sold on their platform to be rated and allow for more transparency to players and parents.  

That’s where independent watchdog, Schelp, has stepped in. Schelp, a creator and advocate, has made it his mission to expose Roblox predators and warn parents about the dangers hiding in plain sight. He actively works alongside law enforcement, and his work has shown just how widespread the problem is. His work has exposed how often predators target children and just how much Roblox is willing to protect those predators. Schlep’s efforts have built awareness and have brought to light a dark fact: the safety of millions of children currently depends on advocates more than on the billion-dollar company running the platform. With the new attention garnered, lawyer Mike Mandell (Law by Mike) has sued Roblox, and To Catch a Predator’s own Chris Hansen has started speaking against Roblox. 

Mother Fights for Daughter after “Sextortion” on Roblox, CEO Wants to Introduce Dating to the Platform.  

An Oklahoma mother has joined the fight against Roblox. The mother has filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma after her then 12-year-old daughter fell victim to one of the many predators on Roblox. The man, who authorities have identified as a well-known registered offender,  posed as a 15-year-old boy, gifting her ‘Robux’, gaining her trust, and ultimately convincing her to take and share sexually explicit photos and videos of herself in 2020.

The mother reports her daughter first started playing on Roblox at the age of 10, and by 12, she had become one of the countless victims of sextortion that happens daily on the platform. 

Alarmingly, Roblox is on the fast track to introducing a 17+ dating section on the platform. With the already alarming epidemic Roblox is facing with child predators, one must wonder where Roblox’s priorities are. Through understandable backlash for not only wanting to introduce a dating section on a game with the majority player base being minors, but it is also makes it even more concerning that the platform chose to include 17-year-olds instead of 18 for their dating platform.  Even after much outcry and public disdain by major creators, CEO David Baszucki has continued to work to launch this “feature”. With the water heating up for Roblox, only time will tell if change will be seen in creating a safer platform for children, and if dating will be launched on the child-dominated platform. 

This story is still developing. Further updates will be shared as more information becomes available.