Roblox loses bid to halt L.A. County's lawsuit alleging child sex exploitation on gaming platform
By Diana Novak Jones
Sept 24 (Reuters) - Los Angeles County’s lawsuit accusing Roblox RBLX.N of failing to protect young users from online predators and sexual exploitation will move forward after a judge found that neither federal law nor the US Constitution’s free speech protections shield the gaming platform from the claims.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dean Kitchens on Wednesday rejected Roblox’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit, which alleges Roblox does little to check its users’ ages, allowing kids and adults to interact on its platform with little oversight.
Claims about Roblox’s limited age verification are not barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law protecting online services from liability for user content, because they don’t involve posts on the site by third parties, the judge wrote. Roblox’s choices about how to verify its users’ ages are not expressive features of the platform that would be protected by the US Constitution’s First Amendment, he added.
Representatives for Roblox and the county did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this year, Roblox said it was making nationwide changes to how teens and children can use its site. In part, the company said it was making changes to its age verification procedures, implementing facial age checks for chat access and introducing age-based accounts with more restrictions and expanding parental controls.
A PUBLIC NUISANCE
Los Angeles County filed the lawsuit in February. It claims Roblox contributed to an increase in child sex trafficking and exploitation. The county accuses the platform of misleading consumers about its safety and creating a public nuisance by exposing children to sexual exploitation.
Public nuisance claims traditionally have targeted conduct that endangers public health or safety, but state governments have increasingly invoked them in litigation involving tobacco, opioids, climate change and vaping.
Public nuisance cases allow governments like Los Angeles County to seek court orders forcing companies to make changes to make their products safer, as well as large financial awards to abate the alleged harm.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, a Republican, filed a similar public nuisance lawsuit against Roblox in June. That case, which also names chat platform Discord as a defendant, is filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and is ongoing, court records show.
Earlier this year, Roblox struck settlements with the attorneys general of Alabama, West Virginia and Nevada, who were investigating the platform for failing to protect young users, but had not yet filed lawsuits. The company agreed to pay more than $30 million and make changes to children's access to its gaming and chat functions.
DOZENS OF OTHER CASES
Roblox and Discord are facing more than 180 lawsuits filed by people who say they were sexually abused or exploited as minors or filed by their parents, alleging the company failed to warn of the risk and did not take action to protect its young users. The lawsuits allege that conversations between adults and minors that began on Roblox often migrated to Discord. Both companies say they shouldn't be liable for the actions of third parties.
As the Los Angeles County litigation moves closer to trial, Roblox and Discord have made efforts to move the individual cases into arbitration. In court filings this week, the companies argued that users agreed to resolve disputes outside of court when they agreed to the sites’ terms and conditions.
Lawyers for the people suing say their clients deserve their day in court and will oppose the efforts to send the cases to arbitration.
The Los Angeles case is The People of the State of California, acting by and through Los Angeles County Counsel Dawyn Harrison v. Roblox Corp, case number 26STCV05708 in Los Angeles Superior Court.
For LA County: Alexandra Walsh of Anapol Weiss
For Roblox: Andy Pincus of Mayer Brown