Roblox wants child exploitation lawsuits moved out of court and into private arbitration

October 23, 2026

Above: Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., left, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., opened a Senate investigation of Roblox on Aug. 12. Official portraits.

Roblox has asked a federal judge to move the first test cases in a group of about 180 child exploitation lawsuits out of public court and into private arbitration.

If the company wins, those cases would be decided by a private arbitrator instead of a judge and jury, in proceedings that are confidential, and evidence about what Roblox knew could stay out of public view. The only court known to have ruled on that question in a child exploitation case sided with the family, according to the family’s lawyers.

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg is set to hear Roblox’s request Jan. 13, 2027, in San Francisco. None of the families’ claims has been tested at trial.

The words to know

Arbitration is a private substitute for a lawsuit. A paid arbitrator, not a judge or a jury, decides the case, usually behind closed doors, and the decision is very hard to appeal.
Terms of use are the contract a user accepts by clicking “I agree.” Roblox’s terms include an arbitration clause, a promise to settle disputes in arbitration instead of in court.
Multidistrict litigation, or MDL, is how federal courts handle many similar lawsuits filed around the country. A panel of judges sends them to one judge, so evidence is gathered once and shared questions are decided once. Each family still has its own case.
Test cases, also called bellwethers, are a few cases picked to go first, so both sides can see how their arguments hold up. Roblox’s request covers six of them.
A magistrate judge handles day-to-day disputes in a case, such as fights over evidence, for the judge in charge.

How the cases got here

About 180 lawsuits accuse Roblox of building a children’s gaming platform where adults could find children, groom them, which means winning a child’s trust in order to abuse them, and move them to other apps, according to a count reported by the Lawsuit Information Center, a site run by a plaintiffs’ law firm. Discord, Snap and Meta are also defendants in the federal case.

On Dec. 12, 2025, the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation sent the federal cases to Seeborg as MDL No. 3166, over the objections of all four companies, according to the panel’s transfer order. The companies told the panel they would move to send many, if not all, of the cases to arbitration.

First page of Transfer order, In re: Roblox Corporation Child Sexual Exploitation and Assault Litigation, MDL No. 3166, Doc. 98 (Dec. 12, 2025) — Transfer order, In re: Roblox Corporation Child Sexual Exploitation and Assault Litigation, MDL No. 3166, Doc. 98 (Dec. 12, 2025) (first page). Source: govinfo.gov

What Roblox is arguing

In a motion filed Sept. 22, Roblox argues that the six test-case children “and their parents” agreed to its terms of use, arbitration clause included. They did so, the company says, each time they created an account, bought Robux, the platform’s virtual currency, redeemed a gift card or accepted updated terms, “even after commencing litigation.” Roblox says each of those clicks also confirmed that a parent had agreed, and that a child cannot cancel a contract a parent made.

In 2022, Congress passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act. It lets people who say they were sexually assaulted take their cases to court even if they signed an arbitration clause. Roblox argues the law does not cover these cases, because the abusers were “third parties whom Roblox does not control.” It also says five of the children accepted new terms after they sued, and that three have not alleged a sexual assault.

The motion opens with a concession: “The conduct Plaintiffs describe is abhorrent, and Roblox does not condone it.” Discord filed a similar motion the same day. It calls the alleged abuse “horrific” but says Discord cannot be held liable for the misuse of its service by third parties.

What other courts have said

In November 2025, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Nina Shapirshteyn held that the 2022 law barred forcing a child’s claims into arbitration, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers. It is the only known ruling on Roblox’s arbitration clause in a child sexual exploitation case. Roblox and Discord appealed. On Aug. 28, Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., filed a friend-of-the-court brief, a filing from outsiders who want the judges to hear their view, supporting the family in that appeal, AboutLawsuits.com reported.

Roblox points to rulings in its favor from Colorado and Pennsylvania, but those came in video game addiction cases, where the 2022 law does not apply, court records show.

Other judges have limited what the clause can do. On June 5, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco sent a group of children’s claims to arbitration but refused to bind their parents. Under California law, he wrote, a child saying a parent consented is not a parent’s consent.

On Sept. 25, U.S. District Judge Mia R. Perez in Philadelphia turned Roblox down in an addiction case. The child had formally canceled the contract, which minors are generally allowed to do, and Roblox offered no evidence the child kept playing afterward. Her opinion, drawing on Roblox’s own witness, describes the company’s web checkout for Robux: the payment screen says that by paying, the buyer acknowledges being at least 18. The account in that case was registered with a birth date showing a child, and it made 22 Robux purchases between October 2023 and October 2025, the opinion says.

And on Sept. 3, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that Roblox gave up its right to arbitration in a parent’s class action by fighting the case in court for nearly a year first.

What the lawsuits say happened

The families allege that children could get around Roblox’s under-13 limits by typing a different birth date, and their complaints describe adults posing as other kids and using gifts of Robux as bait.

Roblox calls itself “the largest dedicated gaming platform for users aged 13 and under” in a shareholder letter. Among users who had verified their age in the week that ended June 30, 2026, 35% were under 13 and 38% were 13 to 17, the company told investors.

For years, Roblox accounts could be opened without a real name, email address or phone number, and most safety workers interviewed said that made predators harder to pursue, Bloomberg Businessweek reported in 2024. Roblox began requiring age checks to use chat worldwide on Jan. 7, 2026, the company has said. Those checks had a cost it reported to investors: first-quarter 2026 growth was “tempered by greater-than-expected headwinds from our age-check roll out,” which “slowed new user acquisition.” Shareholders have since sued, alleging the company misled them about safety; that claim is unproven.

Criminal cases show the pattern the lawsuits describe. Jorel Fowler, a registered sex offender, met one victim on Roblox and moved her to Snapchat, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said; he was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Arnold Castillo of Paterson, N.J., groomed a 15-year-old through Instagram, Roblox and Discord in 2022, federal prosecutors in Indiana said; he was sentenced to 15 years. Daniel Andrés Aravena Oliva of Santiago, Chile, was sentenced Feb. 2 to more than 11 years after prosecutors said he used Zoom, FaceTime and Roblox to entice a 14-year-old Southern California girl.

Screenshot of U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, Fowler sentencing — U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York, Fowler sentencing. Screenshot: U.S. Justice Department

Who is pressing Roblox

Government officials have moved faster than the federal case. On Aug. 12, Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Durbin opened a Senate investigation of the company. Their letter says Roblox reported 65,381 suspected child exploitation incidents in 2025 to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the nonprofit that collects such reports from tech companies and passes them to police. That is more than double the 2024 figure. Part of the rise may reflect a 2024 federal law, the REPORT Act, that expanded what platforms must report. The letter does not separate the causes.

First page of Sens. Josh Hawley and Dick Durbin, letter to Roblox (Aug. 12, 2026) — Sens. Josh Hawley and Dick Durbin, letter to Roblox (Aug. 12, 2026) (first page). Source: hawley.senate.gov

Attorneys general in at least 10 states, along with Los Angeles County, have sued Roblox, according to MDL Update, a case tracker. Louisiana’s Liz Murrill filed the first state suit, in August 2025, and Kentucky’s Russell Coleman and Texas’s Ken Paxton followed that fall. Florida’s James Uthmeier issued criminal subpoenas, orders to hand over records. Their claims remain allegations. Nevada, Alabama, West Virginia, South Dakota and Kansas have settled for roughly $52 million combined, money paid to the states. No family has been paid through the federal case.

In the House, the Energy and Commerce Committee voted 26-23 on March 5 to advance the App Store Accountability Act, which would require app stores to check users’ ages. Rep. John James, R-Mich., said at the meeting that the bill holds big tech to the “same standard as local corner stores.”

Rep. John James speaks at a House Energy and Commerce Committee markup — Rep. John James, R-Mich., at the House Energy and Commerce Committee markup on March 5, 2026, where the App Store Accountability Act advanced. Source: House Energy and Commerce Committee

Also in the case

A fight over secrecy. On Oct. 16, the families’ lawyers told Magistrate Judge Ajay S. Krishnan that some of the children have given devices to the FBI for an ongoing criminal investigation, and asked that records identifying them be shown only to the lawyers; the companies said ordinary confidential treatment is enough, according to a joint filing. The judge’s ruling will shape how much of Roblox’s internal record the public gets to see.
Moderators. Roblox has not published a count of its safety moderators since 2020, when the filing for its stock listing put the number at more than 1,700. Bloomberg Businessweek put the number at about 3,000 in 2024 and reported that eight current and former safety workers said user growth took priority over child safety; Roblox said headcount is not a measure of quality.
What the law requires. A federal law, 18 U.S.C. 2258A, requires platforms to report child sexual abuse material they find, but not to search for it. In California, where Roblox is based, a 2023 law, AB 452, removed the deadline to sue over childhood sexual assault that happened on or after Jan. 1, 2024.
Questions the record does not answer. How many moderators did Roblox have each year? How much did it spend on safety, apart from servers? And why did mandatory age checks for chat wait until 2026?

What happens next

Oct. 27: The families’ responses to the arbitration motions are due.
Oct. 28, 3:30 p.m.: Krishnan hears the secrecy dispute in Oakland.
Nov. 16: A case management conference, by video webinar the court says is open to the public.
Jan. 13, 2027, 9:30 a.m.: Seeborg hears the arbitration motions in San Francisco, according to the docket.
The California appeals court has not ruled on the San Mateo arbitration appeal.

Sources

Court records

Transfer order, In re: Roblox Corporation Child Sexual Exploitation and Assault Litigation, MDL No. 3166, Doc. 98 (Dec. 12, 2025): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-jpml-1_25-F-03166/pdf/USCOURTS-jpml-1_25-F-03166-0.pdf
Docket, In re: Roblox Corporation Child Sexual Exploitation and Assault Litigation, N.D. Cal. No. 3:25-md-03166-RS (ECF 421, 429, 442, 452, 462, 474, 476): https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72030009/in-re-roblox-corporation-child-sexual-exploitation-and-assault-litigation/
Docket and order compelling arbitration, Whittaker v. Roblox Corporation, D. Colo. No. 1:25-cv-02967, ECF 132 (Sept. 2, 2026): https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71419282/whittaker-v-roblox-corporation/
Order granting motion to compel arbitration, N.D. Cal. No. 25-cv-10137-VC (June 5, 2026): https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-dis-crt-n-d-cal/107281.html
Memorandum, Mercado v. Roblox Corporation, E.D. Pa. No. 25-5925 (Sept. 25, 2026): https://assets.alm.com/75/f9/59293f294a1ca48e1c740fab3a13/show-temp.pdf
Memorandum, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, No. 25-5057 (Sept. 3, 2026): https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/memoranda/2026/09/03/25-5057.pdf

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Tags: Abuse, App Store Accountability Act, California, Online Predators, Roblox, Robux

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