The Georgia Attorney General’s Office has launched an investigation into Roblox, an online gaming and chat platform used by millions of children and teens, to determine whether the company is “violating state consumer protection laws and putting kids at risk.”
From a press release from the Office:
This investigation follows repeated reports of child abuse and sexual exploitation initiated on Roblox. Earlier this year, the Georgia State Patrol recovered two girls who went missing from their home in Florida after communicating with a 19-year-old stranger on Roblox. The suspect, who is from Nebraska, is currently facing kidnapping and other charges. In 2023, an adult posing as a child used Roblox’s chat function to communicate with a 12-year-old boy, who was later coerced into sending explicit photos.
As part of this investigation, as authorized by the Fair Business Practices Act (O.G.G.A. §10-1-390—408), the Attorney General’s Office has sent Roblox a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) for information and documents pertaining to child safety. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Reports of abuse, safety violations, and safety issues from Georgia users;
- Documents related to the harm experienced by children who used the platform;
- Communications on the efficacy of parental controls;
- Documents on chat and game moderation capabilities;
- Documents on age verification procedures for child users;
- Information and any audits on adult/child interactions;
- Reports of criminal activity relating to the platform; and
- Marketing materials that relate to the platform’s suitability for children.
The Attorney General’s Office did not include a copy of the letter in the news release.
The statute under which the Attorney General’s Office is requesting documents lists its stated purpose as a subsection of the law “to protect consumers and legitimate business enterprises from unfair or deceptive practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce in part or wholly in the state.” Examples of deceptive practices listed in the code section include:
- Passing off goods or services as those of another
- Causing actual confusion or actual misunderstanding as to the source, sponsorship, approval, or
certification of goods or services - Causing actual confusion or actual misunderstanding as to affiliation, connection, or association
with or certification by another - Using deceptive representations or designations of geographic origin in connection with goods
or services - Representing that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities that they do not have or that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, affiliation, or connection that he or she does not have
- Representing that goods are original or new if they are deteriorated, reconditioned, reclaimed, used, or secondhand
- Representing that goods or services are of a particular standard, quality, or grade or that goods are of a particular style or model, if they are of another
- Disparaging goods, services, or business of another by false or misleading representation
- Advertising goods or services with intent not to sell them as advertised
- Advertising goods or services with intent not to supply reasonably expectable public demand, unless the advertisement discloses a limitation of quantity
- Making false or misleading statements concerning the reasons for, existence of, or amounts of price reductions
- Failing to comply with the provisions of Code Section 10-1-393.2 concerning health spas
- Failure to comply with provisions concerning career consulting firms
- Failure of a hospital or long-term care facility to deliver certain documents
- Failure to comply with provisions concerning promotions
- Failure to furnish certain documents to the buyer of any campground membership or marine membership
