Part 4: What Happens in Roblox Doesn’t Stay in Roblox: The Risk of Real-World Victimization

We are officially wrapping up our four part Roblox blog series by considering the serious reality of children becoming crime victims due to their access to the Roblox application. If you haven't read the other three parts of this series, we encourage you to start at Part 1. If you've read each of these blogs, we thank you for your curiosity and interest to better protect children online.

Roblox may look like just a harmless game — a colorful world where kids build, play, and explore — but behind the avatars and chat bubbles lies a disturbing reality: some predators use Roblox to initiate grooming, often beginning with private or hard-to-monitor conversations. While Roblox offers parental controls, the platform still includes features like private messaging, chat in smaller group games, and "party" systems that can make it difficult for caregivers to monitor all interactions. Grooming often starts subtly: compliments on avatars, offers to give in-game items, or invitations to join in exclusive games. It could simply be the offering of connection and conversation. These interactions are designed to build trust with the child behind the screen.

What makes this situation even more dangerous is that Roblox often serves as a starting point for predators, not the destination. Children can be lured from Roblox onto other platforms — such as Discord, Snapchat, Instagram, or even encrypted messaging apps — where the level of risk escalates significantly. Once moved off-platform, children may be pressured or coerced into sharing explicit images, performing sexual acts on camera, or complying with threats of exposure or harm — all forms of sextortion, online sexual exploitation, and digital coercion.

Let's list a few statistics to help us understand the overall problem before getting narrowing our concerns down.

• 60% of internet crimes against children are perpetrated by someone known to the child (Finkelhor, D., Turner, H., & Colburn, D. (2022)

• ClickSafe Intelligence recently released a study regarding incidents on Roblox and their 4th key finding was "that the primary method users employed to further engage with minor accounts was moving conversations off the Roblox platform, occurring in 7.5% of all play sessions. These cases involved acknowledgment of the user's minor status and included one request for child sexual abuse material." Read the full report here.

• 41% of children who are sextortion victims have only met the person online (Finkelhor D., Turner H., Colburn D. (2023)

• 35% of  minors report they have had an online sexual interaction (Thorn. (2024). Youth Perspectives on Online Safety, 2023.)

• Perpetrators will both pose as children and identify as their true self (Online Grooming Communication Project)

• Perpetrators can establish a connection and begin grooming a child in less than 20 minutes from the initial connection (Online Grooming Communication Project)

Roblox, which starts as a game, becomes a trap, and children may not fully understand they’ve crossed a line until they're suffering from the abuse.

One of the most heartbreaking elements of online grooming is that children often don’t disclose what’s happening — especially when it starts on a platform like Roblox, which they love and don't want to lose access to. Kids may fear punishment, feel ashamed, or worry their favorite game will be taken away. Some may even feel protective of the person grooming them due to the manipulative trust that's been built. This emotional complexity is exactly why open communication and education — not just restriction — are critical. Children need to know they can come to their parents without fear, even if something confusing or uncomfortable has already happened.

Unfortunately, many parents assume Roblox is safe simply because it's marketed as a game for children. As we discussed in Part 1 of this blog series, that assumption can be dangerous. Roblox has millions of users — and a significant portion of them are adults, many of whom are not playing the game carefully considering how their actions may impact the children using the application. Parents might not realize how misused this platform is until it’s too late.

In Part 2, we addressed how Roblox can expose children to cyberbullying and graphic content, both through user-created games and unmoderated chat. And in Part 3, we explored how allowing Roblox to become a form of social interaction can increase their vulnerability — because grooming almost always starts with a connection, not a crime.

This recent arrest shows the how the game can easily be used by a bad actor and lead to the sexual victimization of a child.

The reality is this: Roblox was not created for harm — but it will take dedication and intentionality from parents and caregivers to create a version of Roblox that could be a "mostly safe option." However, when children are allowed to access the majority of features on the game, the worry shifts from just Roblox to other applications as well. The risk and opportunity for children to be victimized can quickly increase when abusers can communicate with a child within a separate application with less monitoring and filters, after the grooming has occurred.

Parents, educators, and youth-serving professionals must look beyond the pixels and pay attention to the people behind them. The most powerful tool we have isn’t fear — it’s prevention through awareness, open dialogue, and proactive boundaries.