Roblox reported 13,316 instances of child exploitation to US authorities in 2023

A Bloomberg report has claimed that Roblox prioritizes growth over player safety due to the gaming platform's internal target of hitting one billion daily users and has a "pedophile problem." Roblox—which reported 13,316 instances of child exploitation to US authorities last year—strongly refutes this.

The details:

• Roblox has 78 million daily active users and monitors 50,000 audio/text messages per second between them. Many Roblox users are under 18, with over 40% being pre-teen. The company employs around 3,000 moderators and also heavily utilizes AI for moderation. Bloomberg reports that Roblox moderation staff feel overwhelmed, with hundreds of child safety issues cropping up daily.
• Bloomberg uses the comparison of TikTok in its report, with the social media platform having three times the number of daily users of Roblox but employing more than 13 times the number of moderators at 40,000. The outlet goes on to report that since 2017, US authorities have arrested at least 24 people accused of abusing victims they had met or groomed on Roblox.
• Naturally, Roblox strongly refutes the content and tone of the report. Matt Kaufman, its Chief Safety Officer, commented to Eurogamer on Wednesday, July 24, "A recent article contained glaring mischaracterizations about how we protect users of all ages on the platform and failed to reflect both the complexities of online child safety and the realities of the overwhelmingly positive experiences that tens of millions of people of all ages have on Roblox every single day."

Other recent Roblox news:

• Ikea has announced that it is looking to hire ten fully paid employees in the UK and Ireland to run its new store built inside Roblox as part of its "Careers Done Different" initiative.
• Roblox Studio head Stefano Corazza dismisses allegations of child exploitation, stating that many creators value the opportunity to earn a living.

Other recent gaming news:

• All 500 members of Blizzard's World of Warcraft team have formed the largest union in Microsoft's gaming portfolio, following the lead of 240 staff at Bethesda Game Studios with their vote to unionize.
• 241 workers at Bethesda Game Studios have officially unionized with the Communication Workers of America (CWA), establishing the first comprehensive union at a Microsoft game studio.