DENVER (KDVR) A family is suing the developers of one of the world’s most popular video game platforms, Roblox, along with Instagram owner Meta. The suit alleges that misrepresentations and negligence by the companies allowed for the sexual exploitation of a Denver girl, exposing her to explicit content and grooming.

Roblox boasts over a billion downloads, an average of more than 100 million users a day and a monthly average of 380 million unique users, according to Reuters.

The 119-page lawsuit was filed by law firm Girard Sharp against the Roblox Corporation and Meta Platforms, Inc. on behalf of a minor, listed as Jane Doe, with her parent.

The lawsuit demands a jury trial and cites complaints for damages, including:

• Fraudulent concealment and misrepresentation
• Negligent misrepresentation
• Negligence general
• Negligence failure to warn
• Negligence unreasonable design
• Negligent undertaking
• Strict liability design defect
• Strict liability failure to warn

The plaintiff’s attorneys accused Roblox of creating a platform that, even with parental controls and monitoring, allows children to be exposed to sexually explicit content, to be easily identified and contacted and then move conversations to Instagram, owned by Meta. The lawsuit also says Instagram allows a child to chat with anyone over voice, video and text messaging.

A spokesperson for Roblox said in a statement, “We are deeply troubled by any incident that endangers our users, and safety is a top priority. We dedicate substantial resources, including advanced technology and 24/7 human moderation, to help detect and prevent inappropriate content and behavior, including attempts to direct users off platform, where safety standards and moderation may be less stringent than ours.”

“While no system is perfect, Roblox has implemented rigorous safeguards, including restrictions on sharing personal information, links, and user-to-user image sharing, and prohibiting sexual conversations. We also partner with law enforcement and leading child safety organizations worldwide to combat the sexual exploitation of children,” the Roblox statement said.

Meta also provided a statement about the lawsuit to FOX31.

“Child exploitation is a horrific crime and online predators are determined criminals. We use sophisticated technology, hire child safety experts, report content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and share information with law enforcement to help root out predators. We also place all teens into Teen Accounts, which provide built-in protections to automatically limit who’s contacting them and the content they’re seeing, and teens under 16 can’t loosen restrictions without a parent’s permission.”

Further claims were made in the lawsuit that Roblox prioritizes user growth over child safety, with an anonymous former employee addressing the claim.

“You have to make a decision, right? You can keep your players safe, but then it would be less of them on the platform. Or you just let them do what they want to do. And then the numbers all look good and investors will be happy,” said the former employee in the lawsuit.

The daughter, a minor listed in the lawsuit, was an avid user of Roblox, with her mother monitoring the use of Roblox and limiting her access to the game. The attorneys claimed that the app offers many ways to work around parental controls and supervision.

The mother said that a child predator was able to identify, groom and coerce her daughter via Roblox and Instagram, into sending sexually explicit images of herself, according to the complaint.

The alleged predator also sent explicit images of themselves to the daughter, the lawsuit says. She was a one-time user of Instagram, who created an account at the direction of the alleged predator whom she met through Roblox.

Roblox and Meta were accused of misrepresenting information about the predatory conduct their apps allow, with the attorneys arguing that if the apps had any form of screening before accepting users on the platform, including age and identity verification, the daughter would never have come into contact with the predator.

“Her innocence has been snatched from her forever. Due to the trauma she endured from being sexually exploited on Roblox and Instagram, she faced multiple hospitalizations, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm,” said the plaintiff’s attorneys in the lawsuit.

The attorneys state that when creating an account for Roblox, a user only needs a username, password and self-reported birthdate, which can be altered to be younger or older than the user’s actual age, without any form of verification.

While Roblox does enforce that accounts under the age of 13 are unable to chat with people above that age, the lack of proof of age means the user can create an account stating they are 13 or older, the lawsuit said.

After users create a profile, they are assigned a default digital avatar, which looks like a small cartoon person that can be used to play in “experiences,” which are mini games created and hosted on the Roblox servers.

The company itself has created its own experiences, but third parties are also able to create experiences independently, with Roblox featuring millions of these in-game experiences.

The lawsuit claims that the third parties’ ability to create unfettered content on the platform has seen experiences featuring sexually explicit content as early as 2010. The Roblox scripting language allows developers to manipulate their avatar to engage in simulated sexual activity.

Some users are coerced into sending sexually explicit photos and participating in explicit acts for an in-game currency called Robux, which allows users to customize their avatar, said the attorneys. Limited-edition, coveted items can sell for high prices, with one of the game’s most expensive items costing 618 million Robux, the equivalent of $2,163,000, according to the Robux to U$D converter.

The lawsuit cites multiple instances of predatory behavior over nearly two decades, when the game was introduced to the public in 2006. Despite Roblox developers stating they are committed to creating a safe environment for children, the plaintiff’s attorney alleges that the necessary precautions are not being taken.

The lawsuit filed by Girard Sharp against Roblox is one of many filed by multiple law firms across the United States in recent weeks for alleged exposure to sexually explicit content, which includes a lawsuit filed by the Louisiana attorney general.