Nebraska AG Sues Roblox, Alleging Platform Is 'Playground' For Pedophiles And Predators

Nebraska's attorney general has filed a sweeping child-safety lawsuit against Roblox Corporation, calling the gaming giant 'no bigger online playground for predators in the entire world,' a broadside that adds Nebraska to a growing coalition of states now pressing the company in court.

Attorney General Mike Hilgers announced the complaint on 4 March 2026, filing it in Adams District Court in Hastings. The suit alleges that Roblox has knowingly built and maintained a platform that exposes tens of millions of children to sexual predators, violent content, and illegal activity, all while assuring parents the service is safe.

It asks the court to declare Roblox in violation of the Nebraska Consumer Protection Act and the Nebraska Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and it seeks civil penalties, punitive damages, and injunctive relief, including mandatory age and identity verification.

What The Lawsuit Alleges

The core of Hilgers' complaint, filed publicly on the Nebraska Attorney General's website, is that Roblox markets itself to children as young as six while refusing to implement the most basic safeguards. According to the complaint, sexual predators have 'repeatedly used Roblox to groom and eventually abduct and sexually assault children.'

The suit goes on to state: 'For years, Roblox has known that it has a paedophile problem.' It accuses the company of deliberately targeting pre-teenage users as a commercial strategy, noting that Roblox once described itself as the '#1 gaming site for kids and teens.'

Hilgers told reporters at a press conference that the platform allows adults to masquerade as younger users, enabling grooming that can move from in-game chats to real-world abuse. He pointed to user-generated game modes accessible to children that included a virtual recreation of Jeffrey Epstein's island, simulations of school shootings, KKK rallies, and virtual strip clubs. He also argued that even Roblox's own parental controls are largely cosmetic, easily bypassed and, the lawsuit alleges, incapable of addressing predatory behaviour at scale.

'Parents deserve the truth,' Hilgers said in a statement released by his office. 'Roblox has built a multibillion-dollar business on the trust of families, all while creating a playground for predators and exposing children to graphic and dangerous content.'

The Scale Of The Legal Wave Against Roblox

Nebraska's filing is far from an isolated action. The states of Louisiana, Kentucky, Texas, Florida, Iowa, and Tennessee have all sued Roblox on child-safety grounds. Los Angeles County filed its own lawsuit in February 2026.

Florida's attorney general separately opened a criminal investigation into the company, and the attorneys general of Oklahoma and South Carolina have signalled they may file their own actions. The JPML transfer order, dated 12 December 2025, noted that by the time of consolidation, the federal docket already comprised 'nearly 80 actions and potential tag-along actions pending across eighteen districts before dozens of judges, with at least fifteen different plaintiffs' firms involved.'

On 13 December 2025, the US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation formally consolidated the federal civil cases into In re: Roblox Corporation Child Sexual Exploitation and Assault Litigation, MDL No. 3166, before Chief Judge Richard Seeborg in the Northern District of California.

Roblox, Discord, Snap, and Meta, all named as defendants in various constituent cases, had argued against consolidation, contending that factual differences between individual cases were too significant to justify a single proceeding. The Panel disagreed, noting that questions around 'the technological feasibility of enhanced child safety features' would require particularly complex expert discovery best handled centrally.

Nebraska's decision to file in state court rather than joining the federal MDL reflects a strategic choice by Hilgers' office. The state is using outside counsel, the same firms already representing other states in their own actions, and Nebraska taxpayers will bear no direct cost for the litigation. Hilgers told reporters he did not wish to limit what a future settlement might require of the company, leaving the door open to a broad injunctive outcome beyond simple financial penalties.

Roblox's Response And Its Finances

Roblox has pushed back on the Nebraska filing directly. Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman, in a statement provided to the Nebraska Examiner, said: 'While we share Attorney General Hilgers' commitment to keeping kids and teens safe online, we are disappointed that he has filed a lawsuit that fundamentally misrepresents how Roblox works.' Kaufman added that the company takes 'swift action against anyone who violates our rules' and works closely with law enforcement.

The company introduced notable safety updates in November 2024, including a parental monitoring dashboard, new restrictions on direct messaging to users under 13, and, most recently, mandatory age verification requiring either AI facial-recognition scanning or submission of a government-issued ID. Roblox has argued these measures demonstrate ongoing investment in safety. Critics, including Hilgers and the attorneys general of other states, counter that the changes came only under legal pressure and remain insufficient.

The National Center for Sexual Exploitation has placed Roblox on its annual 'Dirty Dozen List,' a register of companies the organisation accuses of facilitating and profiting from sexual exploitation, for multiple consecutive years, a designation the company has disputed.

With eighty-plus consolidated federal cases now proceeding before a single judge, half a dozen active state attorney general lawsuits, a criminal investigation in Florida, and regulators across Europe circling, Roblox faces a legal reckoning that its own safety updates may not be enough to contain.

Originally published on IBTimes UK