Roblox and the Reality Parents Aren’t Being Told

Image source: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), CyberTipline Data (2024)

Roblox and the Reality Parents Aren’t Being Told

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recently released numbers that should stop every parent in their tracks. In 2024, the CyberTipline received 20.5 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation. It also received more than 546,000 reports involving online enticement, which NCMEC said was a 192% increase compared to 2023. NCMEC defines online enticement as an adult communicating with a child for sexual purposes, and says sextortion is one part of that larger problem.

Those numbers matter because they force us to ask a very basic question.

Where are kids spending time online, and who has access to them there?

Predators go where kids are. They do not need a dark corner of the internet. They go where children gather, where adults assume things are harmless, and where communication can happen easily. Any platform filled with unsupervised kids and built-in interaction should immediately get a parent’s attention. That is one reason Roblox continues to concern me.

I have been saying for a long time that Roblox is not appropriate for kids, even though it is marketed in a way that makes many adults think it is. Just because something looks colorful, game-based, and child-focused does not mean it is safe. In many cases, that branding lowers adults’ guard. Meanwhile, kids are interacting with strangers, joining user-created spaces, and using communication features inside an environment that feels playful and harmless on the surface.

I recently listened to Shawn Ryan’s interview with Schlep, a 22-year-old who has been speaking publicly about child exploitation tied to Roblox. In that interview and transcript, Schlep describes cases in which children were allegedly contacted through Roblox, groomed through chat, and then moved to Discord, where communication became more secretive and more dangerous. In one case discussed in the transcript, an alleged predator posed as a minor, contacted an 11-year-old through Roblox’s chat, and then directed the child to Discord. The transcript also repeatedly describes concerns about predators presenting themselves as kids and building trust before moving conversations elsewhere.

That pattern is one parents need to understand.

The danger is often not just the game itself. The danger is the access. A child begins on a game platform. A conversation starts. Trust is built. Then the conversation moves to another app, another server, another private space, and the parent never sees the shift happen.

That is why I do not think this is just about better settings, better filters, or better parental controls. Those things may help in some situations, but they do not solve the larger issue. The larger issue is that kids are being placed into digital environments where strangers can reach them, study them, manipulate them, and move them toward private contact.

I have written about Roblox before because these concerns are not new. I have previously pointed out how adult content and sexual concerns have shown up around Roblox-related spaces, and that is exactly why it continues to be a platform I do not recommend for children. The broader environment around it has been raising concerns for years.

What parents should do

My advice to parents is simple.

Do not let your kids on Roblox.

I know that sounds strong, but sometimes strong is the right answer. Parents do not need to become experts in every game, every server, every chat feature, and every loophole predators use. Sometimes the wiser move is to step back and say this environment is not worth the risk.

There are times when adults want to find the balanced answer. They want to supervise it, limit it, monitor it, or make it safer. I understand that instinct. But when you are dealing with a platform built around millions of children, user interaction, chat, and the possibility of strangers pretending to be kids, I do not think the burden should be on parents to somehow manage all of that perfectly.

Not every digital space deserves a place in your child’s life.

If a platform keeps showing up in stories about grooming, exploitation, inappropriate content, and kids being pulled into conversations they were never prepared to handle, that should tell us something. Parents do not need to wait until their child has a bad experience to decide it is a bad idea.

There are plenty of ways for kids to play, connect, and have fun that do not come with this level of concern. Parents should feel more confident saying no to platforms that create more risk than value.

Final thoughts

The bigger point here is not just Roblox. It is that we are raising kids in a digital world where access has become normal. Kids are reachable almost everywhere now. And when that happens, predators do not need much. They just need opportunity.

The NCMEC numbers show us that online exploitation and enticement are not rare problems. They are growing problems.

That means parents need to take a harder look at where their kids are online, who can reach them there, and whether some platforms are simply not worth it.

Roblox is one of those platforms.

This is not about overreacting. It is about recognizing patterns and responding to them.

If a space gives strangers access to your child, allows anonymous interaction, and has a history of concerns tied to it, that is enough information to make a decision.

Parents do not need to wait for something to go wrong.

They can decide ahead of time what environments they are comfortable with and which ones they are not.

Sometimes the best digital parenting decision is not how to manage something.

It is deciding your child does not need to be there at all.

Help them grow up, not just log in.

~ Ryan