Senate Probes Roblox Over Child Safety, CSAM Reports

Two of the Senate's most prominent child-safety advocates have opened a bipartisan investigation into Roblox, citing a sharp rise in reports of suspected child sexual exploitation on the platform. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) sent a letter dated Aug. 12 to Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki demanding documents and written answers by Aug. 31. Hawley press release

The letter, made public Thursday, centers on whether the platform's safety systems are keeping pace with an audience that skews young — Roblox's own marketing reaches children "as young as five," the senators note.

The number behind the probe

The headline figure: 65,381. That is how many instances of suspected child sexual exploitation Roblox reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in 2025 — more than double its reports in 2024, according to the senators' letter. First Alert 4 / KMOV

NCMEC is the congressionally designated clearinghouse for reports of suspected child sexual exploitation, and the figure reflects reports Roblox itself filed with the center. The doubling in a single year sits at the center of the senators' case for moving from legislation to a formal inquiry — a step the two lawmakers, from opposite parties, are taking together.

Hawley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, and Durbin, its ranking member, say the figure warrants a formal inquiry. The letter includes a records-preservation directive and requires document production and responses to interrogatories no later than Aug. 31.

What the letter alleges

The letter catalogs alleged harms spanning the past decade. It cites arrests involving grooming, sexual abuse, kidnapping, rape and murder of children who met offenders through Roblox — cases the senators say accumulated over roughly ten years. It also alleges the platform has been used to trade child sexual abuse material (CSAM), host sexually explicit virtual experiences involving children, bribe or extort minors into producing explicit content, and lure children to in-person meetings. Hawley press release

The senators note that Roblox markets its platform to children "as young as five."

The investigation remains at the letter stage: these are allegations under review, and no findings have been made.

Roblox responds

Roblox responded in general terms. Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said: "Roblox is built on the foundation of safety. We do not compromise on that commitment... We look forward to sharing the facts." Politico

A fuller corporate statement was not available at the time of writing, and Roblox may dispute specifics of the senators' account.

A coordinated front

The Senate probe is not unfolding in isolation. Politico

• The STOP CSAM Act, co-sponsored by Hawley and Durbin, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously.
• The Senate Commerce Committee advanced children's online safety bills last week.
• Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson is seeking to lead a class action against Roblox.
• Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford secured a $12 million settlement from Roblox, along with platform changes.
• Georgia and Connecticut have opened their own state-level probes.

Senate Judiciary has also been negotiating with tech companies over CEO testimony, a sign the pressure on platforms is building on multiple tracks at once.

What happens next

The Aug. 31 deadline gives Roblox roughly three weeks to produce records and respond to the subcommittee's questions. This is not yet a hearing or a subpoena fight: it is a letter-stage investigation — a formal request for documents, interrogatories and preserved records, backed by an explicit deadline. The records-preservation directive means Roblox must keep relevant materials intact while the inquiry proceeds. Whether the escalation continues will depend on what those documents show, and on how the company's answers land.

The investigation also lands on a platform whose leadership insists safety is foundational — a commitment now being tested at multiple levels of government at once. Nevada's settlement came with platform changes attached. Ohio's class-action push, and the Georgia and Connecticut probes, suggest the Senate is not the only institution asking questions.

For a platform that markets itself to children as young as five, the question at the heart of the investigation is a serious one: whether Roblox's safety commitments match the scale of its youngest audience.