Two lawsuits filed on behalf of a Wake County teen and a Cumberland County teen allege that popular apps Roblox and Discord created an environment that allowed a Louisiana man to exploit her online.
The lawsuits were filed on Wednesday, Sept. 17 and on Tuesday in the Northern District of California.
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The first lawsuit alleges that the girl was as young as 13 when she met 20-year-old Joseph Randall of Baton Rouge on Roblox in 2022.
The communication between the two started on the gaming app Roblox and moved to the app Discord, where the lawsuit claims Randall sent explicit photos of himself to the girl and coerced her into doing the same. The lawsuit claims that Randall pressured her to harm herself, in addition to sending her child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Randall was arrested in January in Louisiana and charged with indecent behavior with juveniles, computer-aided solicitation of a minor and possession of CSAM involving children younger than 13.
Attorneys for the teen say that Randall was "abusing and grooming" other young minors across the country.
"You have an adult predator that was on there who was pretending to be a kid who had a pattern and a practice of using voice-altering technology to pretend to be a kid," said attorney Martin Gould, who is representing the teen.
After lulling them into a false sense of security, Gould said, Randall would then "ask for explicit material" and then blackmail them by threatening to release the images they sent him, a practice known as "sextortion."
Keeping your child safe online: How to check their devices and what apps to look out for
The lawsuit alleges that Roblox and Discord have created platforms that are a "haven for adult sexual predators and pedophiles."
Second lawsuit filed against Roblox, Discord on behalf of Cumberland County child
Later Tuesday, a second lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Cumberland County family by the Dolman Law Group.
According to the law firm, the girl, identified as Jane Doe, was an avid user of both Roblox and Discord. The suit said she believed there were proper safeguards in place. The lawsuit alleges that Doe unknowingly encountered a person pretending to be a child on the app, who then began grooming Doe.
After gaining the girl's trust, the lawsuit claimed the person coerced her into sending sexually explicit images of herself in exchange for Robucks, the in-game currency used in Roblox. Attorney's claimed the conversations happened in Discord.
Lawyers said the girl became withdrawn after the the exploitation, to the point she needed therapy to cope with the severe trauma she experienced.
"This case against Roblox and Discord is a terrifying reminder of the world we live in where capitalist greed far outweighs humanity,” said Matthew Dolman, Principal of Dolman Law Group. “There have never been sufficient safety measures and protocols in place, and children are suffering unimaginably. With Robux, Roblox gives evil individuals another literal bargaining chip to play out their unthinkable fantasies with impressionable children.”
The lawsuit claims both Discord and Roblox "instill an unfounded sense of safety in guardians and parents," and allege both apps are designed to "make children easy and accessible prey for pedophiles."
The lawsuit demanded a jury trial for all nine claims the plaintiff made against the two companies
What is Discord? Roblox?
Roblox is one of the most popular video games in the world, with more than 85 million active daily users. According to company data, about 40% of their users were children under 12.
Discord, a free social platform, allows users to exchange voice, video and text communication.
"You can actually add an integrated Discord account into your Roblox account," said attorney Steven L. Vanderporten, who is also representing the teen. "That's not available, Roblox would say, for every age, but, again, Roblox does nothing to verify or has historically done nothing to verify age."
Gould also pointed to games on Roblox that contain sexually explicit themes, including the Bathroom Game.
"Kids (via their avatars) are supposed to be going in there using the bathroom ... they let these avatars, in some cases of rape, other avatars," Gould said.
The lawsuit is among a growing number against the tech companies.
Gould and Vanderporten say they represent more than 1,000 people who were allegedly exploited on the apps.
Roblox faces several lawsuits making similar claims
A High Point family sued Roblox and Discord last month with similar allegations against the platforms. Dolman Law Group filed a complaint on behalf of the family, who claim their 10-year-old daughter was unaware she was interacting with a predator who pretended to be a child her age.
Earlier in August, a former U.S. Marine sued the company. The former Marine claimed the company failed to implement safety features intended to prevent an adult predator from targeting and abusing him.
Also, in August, Louisiana District Attorney Liz Murrill sued Roblox, making similar claims against the platform.
In April, a California man was arrested after authorities said he kidnapped and sexually assaulted a child he met through the popular video game.
The video game company was also accused by a law firm representing YouTuber Michael "Schlep" of banning Schlep from the platform and threatening to sue him over videos he made involving Roblox.
Schelp, who has more than 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube, is popular for making videos of people accused of grooming children through Roblox and Discord. Stinar Gould Greieco & Henlsey, the law firm representing Schlep, said the YouTuber's work led to the arrest of six alleged child predators operating on the gaming platform.
Roblox defended the Schlep's removal, claiming that vigilante groups normalized inappropriate conduct in the video game by posing as minors and moving users off-site to engage in sexually-explicit behavior.
In response to the lawsuits last month, Roblox said it rolled out an open-source version of an artificial intelligence system, which it says would help preemptively detect predatory language in game chats.
Discord, Roblox respond to lawsuit from Wake County teen
When asked about the Wake County teen's lawsuit, a Roblox spokesperson released the following statement:
"We are deeply troubled by any incident that endangers our users. While we cannot comment on claims raised in litigation, we always strive to hold ourselves to the highest safety standards. This includes strong processes to detect and act on problematic behaviors, including advanced technology and 24/7 human moderation and attempts to direct users off platform, where safety standards and moderation may be less stringent than ours. At Roblox, safety is a top priority and we are continually innovating new safety features – over 100 this year alone – that protect our users and empower parents and caregivers with greater control and visibility. While no system is perfect, Roblox is designed with rigorous built in safety features, and our policies are purposely stricter than those found on other platforms, including limiting chat for younger users, not allowing sharing images through chat and filters designed to block the sharing of personal information. We also understand that this is an industry-wide issue, and we are actively dedicating resources to develop industry-wide standards and solutions focused on keeping children safe online. We partner with law enforcement and leading child safety and mental health organizations worldwide to combat the sexual exploitation of children.”
A Discord spokesperson told WRAL that while they do not comment on legal matters, they wanted to share a statement on their policies to keep users safe.
"Discord is deeply committed to safety and we require all users to be at least 13 to use our platform. We use a combination of advanced technology and trained safety teams to proactively find and remove content that violates our policies. We maintain strong systems to prevent the spread of sexual exploitation and grooming on our platform and also work with other technology companies and safety organizations to improve online safety across the internet."