13-Year-Old Groomed, Kidnapped Through Roblox: Family Sues Gaming Giant

Lawsuit Alleges Gaming Platform Enabled Predator’s Grooming, Kidnapping, Sex Trafficking and Rape of 13-Year-Old Girl; SGGH and Milberg Law Firms represent over 400 victims of sexual exploitation on Roblox and Discord

DES MOINES, IOWA – A lawsuit filed on Tuesday alleges that Roblox Corporation enabled the grooming, exploitation, kidnapping and rape of a 13-year-old girl by creating a “digital hunting ground” for predators while falsely marketing their platforms as safe for children.

The complaint, filed in Polk County Circuit Court by Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley, PLLC and Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, PLLC (“Milberg”), details how a predator used Roblox to gain access to, groom, and sexually abuse the young plaintiff in what attorneys describe as a preventable tragedy enabled by corporate negligence.

According to the lawsuit, Plaintiff is a 13-year-old child who was introduced to an adult predator on Roblox unbeknownst to her parents, groomed, and then kidnapped from her grandmother’s West Des Moine, Iowa home on May 24, 2025, trafficked across multiple states where she was repeatedly sexually abused and raped.

The complaint alleges this follows a well-documented pattern that the company was aware of but failed to prevent, despite having the technological means to do so.

“This case exposes how one of the world’s largest platforms deliberately chose profits over the safety of children,” said Martin D. Gould, Founding Partner of Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley, PLLC.

“Despite knowing their apps were hunting grounds for predators, Roblox continued to market themselves as a safe space for kids to learn while refusing to implement basic safety features. They had every tool necessary to prevent this abuse – age verification, effective parental controls, proper monitoring systems – but implementing these safeguards might have reduced their user engagement metrics, so they chose to leave children vulnerable instead,” said Gould.

“What happened to our client was every parent’s worst nightmare. Tragically, it was not an isolated incident on Roblox, but the predictable result of deliberate corporate choices that prioritized growth over child safety,” said Steven L. Vanderporten, Partner at Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley, PLLC.

The lawsuit presents extensive evidence that Roblox was aware that predators were widespread across its gaming platform – which it has repeatedly professed was “designed for 8-18 year olds.” Roblox’s own internal data shows reports of suspected child sexual exploitation jumped from 675 in 2019 to 13,316 in 2023. Multiple criminal cases have documented predators using Roblox to exploit children, while leaked internal documents revealed Roblox employees felt pressure to avoid safety measures that might reduce user engagement. Child safety organizations have repeatedly named both platforms to their “Dirty Dozen” lists of companies facilitating sexual exploitation.

Despite this knowledge, Roblox launched extensive marketing campaigns claiming their platform was safe. Roblox claimed “safety is in our DNA” and promised “cutting-edge technologies” to protect users, and assured parents of “zero-tolerance” for endangering children all while claiming safety was “at the core of everything we do.” The complaint alleges this follows a well-documented pattern the company was aware of but failed to prevent, despite having the technological means to do so.

The complaint details how Roblox chose growth over child safety by refusing to implement basic protections. Failing to require age verification or effective parental controls, default settings allowing adults to easily contact children, and Roblox admitted to investors that it was ‘unable to prevent’ inappropriate interactions while publicly claiming otherwise.

Gary Klinger, Co-Lead Counsel and Senior Partner at Milberg, emphasized the systemic nature of the companies’ failures.

These companies had the knowledge, technology, and resources to prevent this abuse, but chose not to act because it might hurt their user growth metrics. This isn’t about one bad actor slipping through the cracks – it’s about corporate policies that deliberately created the perfect conditions for predators to thrive. Roblox knew exactly how their platforms were being used to exploit children, they had the data showing thousands of incidents, yet they continued to market to parents with false promises of safety while maintaining the very features that enabled this abuse. Our client’s life has been forever changed because these companies valued their stock prices more than her wellbeing.

-Gary Klinger, Senior Partner

The plaintiff seeks compensatory and punitive damages through eight counts including fraudulent misrepresentation, negligence, and strict liability claims. The lawsuit comes amid growing scrutiny of social media platforms’ child safety practices and recent investigations revealing widespread exploitation on Roblox, including the discovery of hundreds of Roblox games themed around convicted criminals.

The Plaintiff is represented by Martin D. Gould, Michael R. Grieco, and Steven L. Vanderporten of Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley, PLLC, Gary Klinger, Melissa Nafash, and Melinda Maxson of Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, PLLC, and J. Barton Goplerud of Shindler, Anderson, Goplerud & Weese, PC.

About Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley, PLLC
Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley (SGGH) is a boutique national personal injury firm dedicated to advocating for victims of abuse and catastrophic injuries in high-stakes litigation. SGGH attorneys pride themselves on being Innovators of Law and Providers of Justice. SGGH attorneys have litigated and won cases nationwide, representing thousands of individuals, including thousands of survivors of rape, sexual assault, and childhood sexual abuse in many of the highest profile abuse cases across the country. These cases include claims against private and public institutions such as University of Michigan (Dr. Robert Anderson), Michigan State University (Dr. Larry Nasser), Endeavor Health (Dr. Fabio Ortega), professional sports teams, private and public schools, elite private boarding schools, orphanages, foster care programs, hospitals, mental health facilities, Fortune 500 companies, wealthy individuals (Jeffrey Epstein), and numerous religious institutions and related entities.

Recent successes include participating in global settlements valued at nearly $3 billion, with over $400 million recovered on behalf of survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation in the past 18 months. In addition to securing record recoveries, SGGH attorneys have also worked with clients to fought for and secure policy changes, helping protect future generations of children and adults from abuse and exploitation. For example, as part of a recent $21.3 million settlement in the hotel abuse case last year (one of the largest settlements in the country for an individual survivor), the firm also successfully secured policy and training changes for thousands of hotels improving hotel pre-employment screening and safety for hotel guests and employees nationwide.

About Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, PLLC
For over 50 years, Milberg and its affiliates have been fighting to protect victims’ rights and have recovered over $50 billion for clients. A pioneer in class action litigation, Milberg is widely recognized as a leader in defending the rights of victims of corporate wrongdoing.

Milberg is currently involved in some of the largest and most complex class action cases pending in the country and is particularly active in the field of Information Technology litigation. Over the past three years, Milberg has settled on a class-wide basis more than fifty (50) class actions involving privacy violations in state and federal courts across the country as lead or co-lead counsel; no other plaintiffs’ class action firm in the country has settled and won court approval of more data breach and data privacy class actions during this period. The firm has successfully brought forth cybersecurity-related claims against major corporations including Meta Platforms, Snap Inc. (Snapchat), Walmart, Bose, CVS, Facebook, Gannett Co., Advocate Aurora Health, Inc., Novant Health, Inc. and more – resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.

Milberg is equally committed to helping survivors of sexual abuse, assault, and exploitation seek justice. Milberg attorneys handle complex sexual abuse cases involving schools, juvenile detention facilities, religious institutions, healthcare providers, employers, and other entities that allowed abuse to occur. Milberg is actively representing sexual abuse victims in cases against Expedia Group Inc. and Securitas Security Services USA Inc., real estate moguls Tal and Oren Alexander, and the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan.