Iowa Sues Roblox Alleging Sexual Exploitation of Children

Attendees at the Roblox Developer Conference in Burlingame, Calif., on Aug. 10, 2019. Ian Tuttle/Getty Images for RobloxIowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has filed a lawsuit against online gaming platform Roblox, accusing the company of failing to take essential precautions to protect children in the state from sexual exploitation, the attorney general’s office said in a Dec. 16 statement.The lawsuit, filed in the Iowa District Court for Polk County, accused Roblox of “engaging in deceptive trade practices—promising parents that its interactive gaming platform was safe for children and equipped with ‘every precaution possible’ while knowing that the platform lacked necessary guardrails and facilitated the sexual exploitation of teen and preteen children and the distribution of child sexual abuse material.”