Two leading U.S. child safety advocacy groups have lodged a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), calling for a full investigation into popular gaming platform Roblox over what they describe as unfair and deceptive business practices that put children as young as five at risk. The filing, submitted Wednesday by Fairplay and the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation, outlines three core areas of concern: predatory in-game monetization, manipulative engagement-focused design, and insufficient safeguards that leave minors vulnerable to unwanted contact from strangers.
At the heart of the complaint is Roblox’s complex in-game economy built around its virtual currency, Robux. Users purchase Robux with real-world money to unlock in-game access, avatar customizations, upgrades and other digital items. The advocacy groups argue that the layered system of virtual currency makes it nearly impossible for young children to grasp the actual real-world cost of the items they are buying, a vulnerability that has led to extreme cases of overspending. One parent included in the filing reported that their 10-year-old daughter racked up more than $7,000 in charges over just two months, even after the family put purchase limits in place.
The complaint also calls out what advocates label “engagement-maximising” design choices intentionally built to keep children playing for extended periods. These include daily login reward streaks that incentivize consistent use, and social comparison systems that publicly display other players’ rare and expensive virtual possessions, pushing children to spend to keep up with peers. The groups additionally highlight chance-based reward systems such as loot boxes, which they argue function like gambling mechanics that minors lack the developmental maturity to understand. All of these features, the complaint argues, intentionally exploit children’s known developmental vulnerabilities around impulse control and peer pressure.
Communication features on the platform represent another major point of concern. Even after Roblox implemented new safety controls, the complaint alleges that text and voice chat functions still expose underage users to inappropriate content and unsolicited contact from adult strangers. Researchers testing the platform using under-13 accounts reported encountering sexual references and abusive language within minutes of joining certain public games, and the filing references documented cases of child grooming and exploitation occurring on the platform.
Roblox has forcefully rejected all of the claims laid out in the complaint. In a statement, a company representative said the platform was “built for fun and connection, not short-term engagement,” noting that the company already maintains clear policies banning both actual and simulated gambling, as well as strict rules governing paid random items. The company emphasized that the vast majority of games on Roblox are free to play, and users are under no obligation to purchase Robux. According to company data, only 1.4% of Roblox’s 132 million daily active users made any purchases on the platform during the first quarter of 2026.
In response to previous criticism over child safety protections, Roblox has already introduced new measures: it now blocks chat between children and adult users who are not connected through parent-approved friend links, and uses automated age-estimation technology to assign minors to age-appropriate accounts with restricted features. But these changes have failed to ease the concerns of campaigners and many parents, who still worry about excessive screen time and unregulated spending by minors on the platform.
Industry observers echoed the skepticism around Roblox’s incremental changes. Drew Benvie, CEO of social media consultancy Battenhall and founder of youth safety nonprofit Raise, noted that young digital-native users are often able to bypass basic age-based safety controls with little effort. “What’s needed is greater user and parental awareness of the impact social features in games can have on children, as well as wide scale legislative changes to address addictive or problematic features, not just the digital sticking plaster of age limits,” Benvie said.
The complaint comes as Roblox continues to see explosive revenue growth: company figures show it generated $4.9 billion in revenue in 2025, a 36% jump from the previous year. The FTC has not yet publicly confirmed whether it will launch a formal investigation into the claims. This action comes amid a broader wave of regulatory scrutiny into how large social media and gaming platforms protect minor users and generate revenue from young audiences. Following a successful California lawsuit that held Meta and YouTube liable for knowingly designing addictive platform features, legal and regulatory experts expect more platforms to face increased scrutiny over manipulative engagement design tactics such as infinite scroll and auto-play.