Tennessee’s Attorney General, Jonathan Skrmetti, has launched legal action against Roblox over child safety concerns. The Roblox safety lawsuit alleges the Company lures children into a dangerous environment. Skrmetti claims Roblox violates the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act by exposing kids to potentially dangerous individuals.
Figure 1: The Roblox corporate office building
The Company denies any wrongdoing in response to the Tennessee legal action. Roblox says the lawsuit fundamentally misrepresents how the platform works. Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman insists Roblox is built with safety at its core.
Tennessee Attorney General Claims Roblox Account Security Failures Endanger Children
Skrmetti described Roblox as the digital equivalent of a creepy cargo van lingering at a playground. The attorney general alleges Roblox invites children into a fantastic online world with promises of creativity. However, he claims that Wonderland is a trap that lets the Company sell predators access to vulnerable kids.
The Roblox safety lawsuit states the Company has treated well-known safety problems as secondary. For years, Roblox prioritised expanding its user base and revenue over protecting children, the suit claims. The lawsuit alleges Roblox worked to reduce oversight and child safety resources despite repeated warnings.
Skrmetti’s office is working with Nashville-based law firm Stranch, Jennings & Garvey to prosecute the case. J. Gerard Stranch said Roblox has had nearly 20 years to fix obvious safety flaws. The Company chose to profit from a system that monetises interactions, putting children at risk, he stated.
Roblox Age Verification to Become Mandatory in Early January 2026
Roblox officials confirmed that age verification is currently optional but will become mandatory starting next year. The Company announced in November 2025 that it would roll out age estimation technology globally. Age checks will be required in early January for users who want to access chat features.
Figure 2: A child uses a tablet to access the Roblox gaming platform
Users must verify their age through Facial Age Estimation or ID verification to access Roblox account security features. Once verified, users will only be able to chat with others in similar age groups. The Roblox age verification system assigns users to six age brackets: under 9, 9-12, 13-15, 16-17, 18-20, and 21 plus.
The Company began enforcing the age-check requirement in select markets during the first week of December 2025. Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands were the first regions where Roblox age verification became mandatory. The age-verification rules are set to roll out globally in early January across all regions where chat functions are enabled.
How Roblox Account Security Measures Work According to the Company
The Roblox age verification process requires users to open the app and allow camera access. Users must follow on-screen instructions for facial verification through a third-party vendor called Persona. Once the age check is processed, Roblox deletes any images or videos immediately.
Minors cannot access experiences outside their age group under the new system. A 9-year-old cannot access games rated for 18-plus users, for example. Users can only chat with others in their own age group and similar age groups as appropriate.
Carol Scandale with the Better Business Bureau says all these games make money somehow. She notes that platforms cannot truly verify if a user claiming to be born in 2014 is actually from 1972. The Roblox safety lawsuit highlights these concerns about inadequate age verification until now.
Tennessee Lawsuit Details Multiple Incidents Involving Roblox Account Security Failures
The court filing details specific incidents that led to the Roblox safety lawsuit. In 2019, a 31-year-old man was charged after driving to Tennessee to pick up an underage girl. He had communicated with her on Roblox for sexual purposes, according to court documents.
Figure 3: A representation of a courtroom gavel and legal documents.
Court documents show that in February 2025, a man from Shelbyville was charged after allegedly using Roblox to contact a minor. He also distributed child sexual abuse material through the Roblox age verification system that existed then. Officials said Roblox has been used by child exploitation groups like Group 764.
These groups allegedly find and groom vulnerable children before coercing them into producing explicit material. The case also references legal action by an Iowa family whose teenage daughter was later found in Tennessee after allegedly being groomed online. She had been taken from her grandmother’s home by someone she allegedly met in a Roblox chat room.
Roblox Defends Safety Record Amid Age Verification Controversy
Kaufman insists the Company has advanced safeguards that monitor the platform for harmful content. Users cannot send or receive images via chat, eliminating opportunities for misuse seen elsewhere online. The Company says safety is a constant and consistent focus of its work.
Roblox is currently rolling out additional measures to further limit who users can chat with. The Company takes swift action against anyone found to violate safety rules, Kaufman stated. Roblox works closely with law enforcement to support investigations and hold bad actors accountable.
As a dad, Kaufman says there is no finish line when it comes to protecting kids. While no system can be perfect, the commitment to safety never ends, he added. Parents can visit the Safety Centre to learn more about safety work and ways to keep children safe online.
Platform Statistics Reveal Scale of Roblox Age Verification Challenge
The Roblox safety lawsuit notes the platform averaged 151.5 million daily active users in the third quarter of 2025. This represents a 50 per cent increase from the same time last year. The Company reported around 83 million daily active users in its latest annual report for 2024-25.
Figure 4: A screenshot of Roblox’s in-game chat interface
More than half of those users are under the age of 17 years old. Approximately 40 per cent are under 13, while roughly 20 per cent are under nine. These statistics underscore why Roblox age verification has become such a critical issue for child safety advocates.
The National Student Ombudsman data reveals growing concerns about online platform safety. Over 21.4 million users had already completed the voluntary Roblox age verification process by early December 2025. This suggests significant user engagement with the new safety measures despite ongoing concerns.
What Parents Can Do to Improve Roblox Account Security
Scandale recommends that parents password-protect everything on their children’s devices. Children should not be able to download anything without parental username and password entry. However, she acknowledges that even these guardrails may not be fully effective.
Parents need to be parents and sometimes say no, Scandale emphasises. If they are not comfortable with what they are seeing, they should prohibit app downloads. Burghardt travels to schools across Tennessee, talking to children about online chatting dangers.
Figure 5: Parents supervise a child using a tablet at home.
Roblox offers parental controls allowing parents to link their accounts to their children’s profiles. Parents can set screen time limits, spend limits and friend controls through this system. They can also determine what kinds of games their children can play on the platform.
Other States Join Tennessee in Pursuing Roblox Safety Lawsuits
Tennessee is not the first state to file legal action over Roblox age verification and safety concerns. Kentucky’s attorney general sued Roblox in October 2025, calling it a playground for predators. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit in November 2025.
Paxton claimed the Company flagrantly ignored state and federal online safety laws. He accused Roblox of deceiving parents about the dangers of its platform. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a similar suit against the gaming giant in August 2025.
Attorney Alexandra Walsh represents multiple families in federal and state court cases across the country. In the last year, her firm filed about 15 cases where children were targeted on Roblox. These children were identified, targeted and groomed on the platform, she stated.
Looking Ahead: Will Mandatory Roblox Age Verification Be Enough
Walsh believes the new measures are too little and too late for affected families. She questions where these protections were two, three or four years ago. Her clients and other victims were hurt during that time without adequate safeguards.
Walsh worries that predators will use other AI programs to trick the Roblox age verification technology. She suggests that technologies could alert parents anytime their child is approached by someone else. However, implementing such systems would require significant platform redesign and ongoing monitoring.
The Roblox safety lawsuit seeks civil penalties and court orders requiring changes to safety practices. Skrmetti’s office aims to force the Company to prioritise child protection over profits. The outcome of this legal battle could set precedents for other gaming platforms facing similar scrutiny.
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FAQs
Q1. What is the Tennessee Roblox safety lawsuit about?
Ans. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed a lawsuit alleging that Roblox lures children into a dangerous environment. The Roblox safety lawsuit claims the Company violates the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act. Skrmetti says Roblox prioritised profits over child safety for years despite knowing about risks.
Q2. When will Roblox age verification become mandatory?
Ans. Roblox age verification became mandatory in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands in early December 2025. The requirement will extend globally in early January 2026, wherever chat features are available. Users must complete age checks through Facial Age Estimation or ID verification to access chat.
Q3. How does the Roblox age verification system work?
Ans. Users must allow camera access and follow on-screen instructions for facial verification through vendor Persona. The Roblox age verification system assigns users to six age brackets based on the scan. Images and videos are deleted immediately after processing to protect privacy.
Q4. What are the concerns about Roblox account security?
Ans. The lawsuit details incidents where predators used the platform to target children for exploitation. Parents report that adults quickly approached children, asking personal questions and suggesting moving to other apps. The Roblox account security measures were deemed inadequate to prevent predatory behaviour until the new system.
