NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. — A Nassau County mom is suing popular gaming platform Roblox, accusing it of creating a breeding ground for child predators.
The family’s attorney, Sadi Antonmattei, said an online interaction led to the attempted kidnapping of a five-year-old boy at his school.
Antonmattei filed a complaint against Roblox. He said in 2024, the boy was using an app, and he was messaging with another person who was pretending to be his peer.
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“In this case, the perpetrator asked the boy for the name of his school so they could meet up,” Antonmattei said. “This is a common tactic used by predators on the platform Roblox to groom children.”
That adult man, the attorney said, showed up at the child’s school, though he didn’t say what school or where it is located.
“The boy was cognizant enough to know when he presented himself as his Roblox friend, he was not a child, he was a man,” Antonmattei said.
The boy’s mother later received a call from a fellow school parent who noted a suspicious male was following her son and other children around.
According to the lawsuit, the predator then attempted to kidnap the child, and a struggle broke out, with the kids refusing to go with him. The predator saw the police arriving and got scared and fled
The complaint stated that the predator was eventually arrested, but it doesn’t name the man or the arresting agency.
Action News Jax has been working to get that arrest report. We checked with the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office, and it sent us a statement:
“The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office would like to address a story currently circulating regarding an alleged attempted kidnapping of a 5-year-old involving the Roblox app. At this time, our agency has not been involved in any such case, nor have any attorneys connected to the matter contacted our office. If anyone has concerns or credible information to share, please contact the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office directly.”
We also tried to get the legal team to provide us with more details on when and where this happened and the suspect’s name. But they haven’t been able to provide it so far.
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The family’s attorney argued that Roblox is not doing enough to verify who is creating an account.
“A 50-year-old man can create an account and make themselves a 14-year-old girl, for example,” Antonmattei said. “There have been no serious attempts by Roblox to determine that people who are creating these accounts are, in fact, who they say they are.”
A Roblox spokesperson sent Action News Jax a statement:
“We are deeply troubled by any incident that endangers any user. We are currently reviewing the complaint and will respond appropriately to the specific claims. Roblox aims to build a platform that sets the bar for safety online, and we prioritize the safety of our community. This is why our policies are purposely stricter than those found on many other platforms. We limit chat for younger users, don’t allow user-to-user image sharing, and have filters designed to block the sharing of personal information. We also understand that no system is perfect and that is why we are constantly working to further improve our safety tools and platform restrictions to ensure parents can trust us to help keep their children safe online, launching 145 new initiatives this year alone.
We also understand this is an industry-wide issue, and we are working to develop industry-wide standards and solutions. For instance, Roblox is implementing an industry-leading policy to help prevent older users from communicating with children by requiring a sophisticated facial age estimation process for all Roblox users who access our communications features. We partner with law enforcement and leading child safety and mental health organizations worldwide to combat the sexual exploitation of children and are a founding member of the Tech Coalition’s Lantern project and the nonprofit Robust Open Online Safety Tools (ROOST).”
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