The popular online game Roblox is allegedly a haven for child predators. A new report notes the platform documented over 13,000 incidences of child exploitation in 2023 alone.

The report claims that not only have Roblox users engaged in sexual behavior with children but that members of the Roblox staff, including developers and employees, have also been caught engaging in inappropriate behavior. In one disturbing case, a social media manager ran a pornographic website while still being a member of the Roblox staff.

Newsletter Need to Know.

Your free, daily feed from The National Pulse.

Thank You!

You are now subscribed to our newsletter.

In another case of child exploitation, a 12-year-old girl was abducted by a man who had used the platform to groom her, and despite being flagged for his activity, he was allowed to use the platform even on the day of the abduction itself.

On top of child abuse and child exploitation, some Roblox users have been victims of fraud on the platform, with fraudsters tricking children into giving away their details.

Concerns regarding Roblox have led to a lawsuit being filed earlier this year in San Francisco, which accused the platform of not doing enough to combat child sexual exploitation and the financial exploitation of children using the platform.

Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is also rife across much of social media. Thirty-one million reports of CSAM were made across Meta’s various platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, last year.

Meta accounted for 85 percent of the CSAM reported online in 2023. Still, CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg is not being held to the same standard as Telegram‘s Pavel Durov, who was arrested in France last month over child sex crimes, fraud, and other illegal activity on his platform.

Image via Flickr.