The state of Louisiana, YouTuber Schlep, and YouTuber Law By Mike are suing Roblox, one of the largest children’s online gaming platforms, which is used by 380 million children worldwide each month, for allegedly “Designing the platform in risky ways, marketing it as safe, and ignoring clear warning signs,” according to Law By Mike. But how did all this happen, why did it happen, and what’s next?

Schlep is a YouTuber who makes videos of the dangers of child predators on Roblox, and working with law enforcement, has gotten six predators arrested in the last year. Schelp has “been playing Roblox since I was a little kid,” and even has a second channel where he just plays Roblox, Maliboomer, which he can no longer run. 

“I love this platform…and that’s why I’m so critical of it, I want to see it do better,” Schlep said in his video. He says that he was hurt by one of these predators as a kid, a big developer that Roblox was promoting at the time. Before he ever got involved with law enforcement, Schlep had been reporting these types of people repeatedly to Roblox, with no response, according to Schlep. 

“Instead of trying to say, ‘Hey, we want to work with you,’ or literally giving me a line to report these people, or simply saying, ‘Don’t make these videos anymore, we’re gonna ban you,’ Roblox just terminated every account I owned and sent me a Cease and Desist letter…Roblox has made it clear that I am banned from ever accessing the platform again.”

On August 9, Roblox sent Schlep a Cease and Desist letter stating that what he was “Engaging in simulated child endangerment conversations, Sharing or soliciting personally identifiable information, Directing users to move conversations off platform.” That same day, Schlep released a video titled “Roblox Is Threatening to Sue Me For Protecting Kids.” In this video, he explains that the predators are always the ones to talk first, and the personally identifiable information is being given to law enforcement only, so that they can arrest him.

“It’s completely a backwards decision. Schlep was giving Roblox an opportunity to clean up their platform, and rather than work with Schlep and collaborate with him and find out what he knows and ways that he may be able to help them, they’re trying to silence him,” attorney Steven Vanderport said.

Once all this happened, there were games made on Roblox as a tribute to Schlep, but while other YouTubers were playing this game, Roblox took down the game. Roblox also banned anyone with the tag #FreeSchlep in their Roblox username.

“I do not support the reason to ban Schlep due to the fact that he caught and got people that made the platform unsafe arrested,” Jameson McGowan (7) said.

Roblox cannot be sued for what the users do on the platform, according to 47 U.S. Code § 230. This means that Roblox cannot be sued for the types of games that people post on their platform, or for the way users interact on the platform, or for what they say. This is why Louisiana, YouTuber Law By Mike, and Schlep have all decided to sue Roblox for misleading parents and children that their platform is safe, when it really wasn’t.

“That’s why these lawsuits matter; they represent more than just a few individual complaints, they’re part of a broader movement, pushing tech companies to take accountability, especially when their platforms are hurting younger players,” Law By Mike said in his video.