MONTGOMERY — Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that the State had reached a $12.2 million settlement with the online gaming platform Roblox, which will fund additional School Resource Officers (SROs) and bolster child safety on the platform.
Marshall announced the settlement at a Tuesday press conference, alongside various members of law enforcement, representatives from the state’s education system and the state’s SRO leadership.
Roblox has been under fire across the United States recently as parents have filed lawsuits, claiming the online interactive gaming platform left minors susceptible to online predation. This includes a lawsuit filed last year in Covington County, where a father claims his 13-year-old met an adult man on the platform who sent her explicit images of himself, then attempted to rape her during an in-person meeting.
In Dale County, two lawsuits have been filed against Roblox, claiming similar crimes against children.
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Marshall announced that under the agreed settlement terms, Alabama will receive $12.2 million to fund SROs statewide through the Attorney General’s Safe School Initiative.
“I'm extremely proud of the work of this office and securing a settlement that ensures that Alabama's kids have a safer opportunity to be able to engage in the Roblox platform, but also sends a very direct message to others who likewise offer opportunities for children to be online. That is, we're watching, that we have no tolerance for child exploitation, and we will take action and deliver results when we see that Alabama's children are engaged in vulnerable activity,” Marshall said.
Marshall believes Alabama’s settlement can serve as a framework for other states to bolster online child safety on Roblox and other online platforms.
As a part of the agreement with Roblox, all users must undergo age verification to ensure children have access only to age-appropriate content on the platform. The platform has committed to using “facial age estimation technology” and government ID to confirm age. It will also use behavioral monitoring to identify users who may have been aged incorrectly. The settlement also explicitly addresses privacy concerns related to age verification.
The agreement also expands parental controls, allowing parents to decide who their children are talking to and which games they are playing on the platform, and to restrict the transfer of in-game currency from adults other than trusted connections. In the absence of a parent account, the default content mode provides protections to minor users.
Despite the expanded protections, chief counsel Katherine Robertson emphasized the continued need for parental vigilance.
“I think my takeaway from this as a mom is that Roblox is meeting parents halfway, but there is still an extremely important role for parents to play,” Robertson said. “So, I don't want anyone to read a news article about today's press conference and think that they can be hands-off.”
“This platform, like any platform that is internet accessible, is always going to have to deal with emerging threats. And if it's not Roblox, it's going to be another one. And so just as a parent talking to other parents out there, we have come a long way, we have gotten the company to identify these vulnerabilities and address them, but the parents have got to take advantage of the tools that we are giving them in this agreement," she added.
The agreement also ensures that adult Roblox users will not be able to chat with users under 16 unless they are selected as a “trusted friend.” Trusted friends for users under 13 require parental consent. Unless a parent elects otherwise, users aged 13 to 15 may add trusted friends via a QR code or a phone contact importer.
Under the agreement, Roblox will not allow encrypted communication involving minors. According to Marshall’s office, unencrypted communication allows law enforcement to more easily combat child exploitation networks, trafficking and the distribution of other content.
Marshall’s office also secured a “most favored nations” clause in the agreement, meaning that if Roblox reaches a settlement with another state under more favorable terms, Alabama’s settlement would be adjusted commensurately.
The agreement establishes a liaison position that will allow state law enforcement to investigate and address safety concerns like online child exploitation quickly.
The funds will be used to increase the number of SROs in Alabama’s schools.
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