Roblox agrees to pay $10 million, make platform changes in Nevada settlement over child safety
15/04/2026 20:49
Roblox reached settlement before litigation was filed Site will implement age verification and restrictions on content, chat for minors Company is facing more than 140 lawsuits over child exploitation through its site By Diana Novak Jones April 15 (Reuters) - Interactive gaming platform Roblox has reached a settlement with Nevada over claims it failed to protect young users, agreeing to pay $10 million to the state and make nationwide changes to how it allows children to use its chat and gaming functions, the state’s attorney general said on Wednesday. Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, said at a press conference that the company reached the settlement after the state approached it in preparation for a lawsuit over claims the platform lacked basic features that could protect children from predators and exploitation. In a statement, California-based Roblox said the agreement “is a testament to our ongoing mission to set the gold standard for online safety - one informed by our productive discussions with Attorney General Ford and leaders around the world.” Ford told reporters he hoped that the settlement “will serve as a bellwether for how online interactive platforms allow our state's youth to use their products.” As part of the settlement, which Ford said was memorialized in a court filing on Wednesday, Roblox will pay $10 million to support children’s programs in Nevada over the next three years, and spend another $2.5 million on an awareness campaign about minor safety online and a staff law enforcement liaison, Ford said. It will implement age verification for all users, based on age-estimation technology and government-issued identification, and will monitor account behavior to ensure that users have not lied about their ages, Ford said. Roblox will also expand parental controls, restrict who users under 16 may chat with and end all encryption on chats for minors, Ford said. The company said the features changed in the Nevada settlement will apply to the site nationwide by early June. Roblox recently made changes to its age verification procedures, implementing facial age checks for chat access and, earlier this week, announcing it was introducing age-based accounts with more restrictions and expanding parental controls. Roblox Kids accounts will be for users between 5 and 8 years old, and Roblox Select accounts will be for users between 9 and 15, both of which come with restrictions on chat and content. Users over 16 will have access to standard accounts, according to the company. Roblox is facing more than 140 lawsuits in federal court accusing the company of knowingly facilitating child sexual exploitation. Separately, state attorneys general in Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and Florida have sued the company over similar claims. The ongoing lawsuits against Roblox, which were filed beginning last year, accuse the company of designing a gaming platform marketed to children that enables predators to target and contact them. The plaintiffs, who are people who say they were sexually abused or exploited as minors by people they met on Roblox, allege the company failed to warn parents of the risk and did not take action to protect its young users. Roblox has denied wrongdoing in those cases. (Reporting by Diana Novak Jones)