Arkansas lawsuit links Roblox, Discord as ‘two-stage predatory pipeline’

The State of Arkansas has launched legal action against Roblox and Discord, looping the messaging platform into the cluster of U.S. lawsuits that social gaming platform Roblox faces for failing to protect kids online.

KARK News quotes Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, who accuses both platforms of not meeting the necessary standard for child safety, despite being aware of the risks.

“Roblox left the front door unlocked, and Discord handed predators a private room,” says Griffin in a statement. “Arkansas children paid the price. That stops now.”

Roblox has taken plenty of licks for its allegedly lax safety measures, so Arkansas’ claims that it did not implement adequate age assurance measures, and rejected internal proposals to warn children about grooming behavior, are not surprising. The state’s suit says reports submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children show that suspected child sexual exploitation incidents connected to Roblox rose from 675 in 2019 to more than 13,000 in 2023.

Alabama, West Virginia and Nevada have all settled with Roblox for more than $11 million each in their legal proceedings. Louisiana, Kentucky, Texas, Florida, Iowa, Tennessee and Oklahoma have also filed suits. By now, Roblox knows the drill.

The association with Discord, however, is new. Arkansas says Discord’s design gives children control over parental monitoring settings and allows unscreened messages from adult users,  and that the platform falsely represents its safety measures. Griffin has suggested the two platforms combined form a “two-stage predatory pipeline” – make contact on Roblox, then move the conversation over to Discord to arrange in-person meetings.

The legal filing with the Superior Court of California for Los Angeles County begins with the assertion that “sexual predators no longer need candy or a van. They don’t even need a cute little puppy. Today, they have Roblox – a platform that leaves the front door unlocked with a sign that says ‘children inside.’ And when Roblox hands a predator a child’s trust, Discord hands them a secret private room without parents.”

“Discord has become one of the most-cited platforms in federal child-exploitation prosecutions partially because it is built around anonymous servers, unmonitored direct messages, and voice and video chat with no meaningful age verification.”

Discord has responded with a statement saying the lawsuit “does not reflect the platform we have built or the investments we have made in user safety.” As quoted in the Arkansas Advocate, the platform says “our safety systems combine advanced technology and human-led investigations, alongside user reports to help identify accounts or spaces engaged in harmful activity,” and that it look forward to “collaborating with policymakers in working toward a safer online experience for all users on Discord and across the internet.”

The platform initially tested age assurance from Persona, but abandoned it after objections from its user base. Recently, it announced that orchestration platform k-ID will continue to provide age assurance for Discord through facial age estimation (FAE) provided by Privately. The messaging platform is also testing FAE from Incode.

Roblox, meanwhile, sent a statement to KARK, confirming that it is “deeply committed to fostering a safe, healthy, and age-appropriate environment for our community.”

“We strongly dispute the claims in this lawsuit filed by the Attorney General of Arkansas in Los Angeles County, California. It fundamentally misrepresents how our platform works and fails to recognize the extensive, proactive measures we are taking to set a new standard in online safety.”

“While no system can be perfect, we are constantly strengthening our user protections, and we look forward to working collaboratively with Attorney General Griffin to help keep kids safe online.”

The platform has just announced that it is testing age assurance from Persona.

The Attorney General’s lawsuit casts doubt on this, accusing Roblox of deliberately building a platform that is dangerous for children, then doing nothing to mitigate the harms it was causing until the lawsuits started to fly. Roblox “knowingly and/or recklessly designed its platform without necessary guardrails to protect kids from predators and harm,” it says. “Roblox did not merely inherit this ecosystem. It built it.”

The suit is filed under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, public nuisance law and common law unjust enrichment, seeking injunctive relief, monetary damages and the return of profit wrongfully obtained from Arkansas consumers.

Article Topics

age verification  |  Arkansas  |  Discord  |  gaming  |  lawsuits  |  Roblox  |  social media