Roblox is one of the most popular gaming platforms, but there may be trouble ahead. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has confirmed that Roblox is “part of an active and ongoing investigation.”
Hunterberg Media originally reported last fall that Roblox was under investigation by the SEC over charges that it “inflated key metrics” for investors on Wall Street and for its lax safety measures regarding potential child predators on the platform. The SEC did not confirm that Roblox’s parent company, The Roblox Corporation, is under investigation. However, Bloomberg has confirmed that the SEC refused to provide details of its investigation because it may “harm… the ongoing enforcement proceeding.”
In November 2024, The Roblox Corporation laid out new safety guidelines for children on the platform. Children under the age of 13 are no longer allowed access to unrated experiences created within Roblox, and only children 13 and older will be allowed to utilize the social hangouts and free-form user-creation experiences. That move came after a previous Bloomberg story which noted that The Roblox Company reported over 13,000 instances of child exploitation to authorities in 2023. Moreover, two dozen people were arrested for abusing children after making contact with them through the platform.
The Roblox Corporation responded to that report by touting its cooperation with law enforcement to combat illegal activity on the platform. It also suggested that Bloomberg’s report didn’t contextualize the scale of the child exploitation problem with Roblox’s large user base.
During last year’s Roblox Developers Conference, The Roblox Corporation reiterated its plans to reach 1 billion daily active users. If it’s proven that The Roblox inflated its current estimate of daily Roblox users to investors, that could potentially lead to severe penalties from the SEC.
