Roblox: Marketed for Children — Exploited by Predators

Matt Dolman: Welcome to another episode of the David and Goliath podcast, here with my partner Stan Gipe and our esteemed guest today, Davis Cooper. Davis is my smartest friend — I keep him on speed dial so I look more intelligent in front of everyone I come across on a daily basis. Davis, give us a little background on yourself.

Davis Cooper: My name is Davis Cooper. I started the firm Cooper Masterman with my partner Joe Masterman. We handle individual injury lawsuits, mass torts, complex litigation. I started my career at a litigation boutique in DC focused on constitutional matters — my father's firm, Cooper and Kirk.

Matt Dolman: Tell us about Cooper and Kirk and who your father is.

Davis Cooper: My father's name is Chuck Cooper. He's well known in the legal community as an elite litigator. He operates at the Supreme Court level and has handled many of the most impactful cases that have set precedent binding the entire country. It was a great place to learn how to practice law. I've been involved with Cooper and Kirk my entire life — from internships all the way back to coloring pictures in my dad's conference room while he was on conference calls. After working there for a long time, I felt called to pivot into a practice where I could help individuals. That's how I met Matt and Stan, and now we do a lot of business together.

Matt Dolman: Davis recently pivoted into sexual abuse litigation. He's handling cases against Roblox, Discord, and Snapchat, and doing a lot of sexual abuse cases around the country. For context, Davis's father Chuck Cooper argued Bush v. Gore on the side of Bush. His law clerks included Senator Tom Cotton and Senator Ted Cruz. Chuck Cooper is known as probably the most influential lawyer in Republican circles. Conservative lawyers coming into the plaintiff bar are needed — we need to balance out the playing field. Stan, what are we going to talk about today?

Stan Gipe: One of the main things is Roblox. My kid was playing Roblox. I thought it was digital Legos — I thought he was just on there building stuff online. Holy crap, was I wrong. When you go and actually watch what's on Roblox, it's a kiddy game that has become a cesspool of predators. How did this happen?

Matt Dolman: We actually played Roblox in our office with staff just to get a feel for the platform. When you say it's a cesspool, that's an understatement. It was like bees to honey when we pretended to be children on that platform. The lack of moderation, the lack of filters — it's shocking. The theme of our cases against Roblox is that they cared more about onboarding users than implementing any safety measures. They just cared about putting as many people on the platform to pump up their valuation. That stock went through the roof — and this is a company that just doesn't give a damn about children.

Stan Gipe: That's exactly how we got involved. Within five minutes of being on the platform as a seemingly 12-year-old girl, people were approaching us in sexually explicit ways. It was something I completely did not expect. As an adult, you just think this is an online game. And I believe 90% of that is the wrapper that was put on it — it's Roblox, it's a children's game. Why would I have to look at it that closely?

Davis Cooper: That's something we see across many of our clients. A lot of people ask why parents aren't aware of the interactions their children are having on the platform — implying these things are preventable if parents are paying attention. But the families we represent are among the most conscientious parents. They allowed their child to play on Roblox because Roblox told them — through all of their promotions and marketing — that it was a safe place for their child. They were looking for a safe place for their child to spend time online. Based on the identity Roblox artfully crafted to increase their user base, these parents were misled into thinking Roblox was the safest platform. Educational. Good for the child. Welcoming. Safe. And as we know as attorneys who talk with victims every day, Roblox is anything but.

Matt Dolman: This is a platform marketed as safe for children six and older. I'm a 48-year-old man — I could let my child sit on my tablet for a few minutes at a restaurant just to get a little peace and quiet, and I'm not being a bad parent. But cloaked behind the anonymity of an online figure is another 48-year-old man talking to my child. You don't know that. That's why the victim-shaming — read the comments under any article and right away it's "where are the parents, what are the parents doing, I would never let my kid on there." Really though? This is a product that's been sold by a publicly traded company and marketed as safe for children six and above — why would you ever think that this is going to be an unsafe product?

Stan Gipe: They think they're letting their kids go on to something like Sesame Street online. What they're really doing is allowing their kid to go into a playground with no adult supervision, with millions of other kids — and adults who are allowed to pretend to be children. There's no way to discern which users are real children and which are adults pretending. No chaperones. No one watching over the interactions these kids are having on this digital playground.

Matt Dolman: And what we're dealing with — these predators — they're skilled. They're out there with the purpose of luring children. It's not "Hey Johnny, nice to meet you." It's subtle. It's going to seem like Melissa. It's going to be very innocent. There's going to be a grooming process. By the time the communication turns malicious, the relationship has been established. As a parent looking on, you see "this is just Melissa, we've been friends for three months and playing the game." You can't tell if Melissa is truly Melissa, or someone who has been pretending for three months to get what they want from your child.

Stan Gipe: The problem is — let people know what they need to watch out for. If you tell me as a parent this is going on, I know to keep an eye on my kid. But if you don't let the parent know — and Roblox is in the best position to know what's happening on their platform — and instead you tell me this is the safest place in the world, I have no way to protect my child.

Davis Cooper: There is a willing ignorance in the corporate structure. They don't want to see what's going on because as soon as they see it, they have to deal with it. And as soon as they deal with it, that costs them money. Nowhere in the world is it normal for adults to speak to children they're not related to — but that goes on unabated all day long on these internet gaming platforms and social media.

Matt Dolman: Every time we file a lawsuit, Roblox has their PR spin machine claiming these are isolated events. But we know from the litigation — and from the whistleblowers we've spoken to — that this systemic predation of children has been going on for many years. They've received notice of this. The technology they tried to introduce this year was available to them since 2015, 2016. They could have designed their product to be safe. They chose not to. All they cared about was the bottom line.

Davis Cooper: One theme we see repeatedly — proof that Roblox knew and has known for a long time that this is a real problem — is that when we talk to clients who have had interactions with law enforcement, before the family can even finish telling their story, the officer will say "let me guess — was this Roblox?" If you Google this problem you'll see article after article, case after case where predators have used this platform to meet, target, and groom victims. This is ground zero. If you are a sexual predator, this is the most target-rich environment you can imagine. There are all sorts of ways to get on the platform, pretend to be a child, and befriend other children. And it's not just individual predators — there are professional child pornography operations that essentially use Roblox as their main place to find victims and trick, threaten, or bribe children into providing sexually explicit material.

Matt Dolman: Roblox has been named to the Dirty Dozen list by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation as one of the worst tech companies facilitating the exploitation and abuse of children. They knew this. Every time they tell you these are isolated events, they're also cooperating with law enforcement in all 50 states regarding the predation of children. They knew it was systemic. They just chose to ignore it because it was more profitable.

Stan Gipe: I want to make sure people understand what the Roblox lawsuit is actually about. We're part of a team of attorneys suing Roblox because they created this gaming platform — and at some point it became infested with predators. Those predators fall into three categories. First, you have individuals doing meetups — we represent dozens of children who have been physically raped by people who found them on Roblox. Second, you have child pornography — people who want it for their own purposes, people who sell it, and then a third group who use it for extortion. Once they get these images, they tell these kids: send money or I'll show this to your family and friends. Some of those kids have taken their own lives. Roblox became aware of all of this and did nothing. Once you realize your product has a negligent design, once you know these things are going on, you need to stop telling people this is a safe place to leave your child unattended. Roblox did none of that — and because of that, kids continued to be harmed long after Roblox had the tools to stop it.

Davis Cooper: Some of the games children can log on and play in Roblox include simulations of Jeffrey Epstein's island, P Diddy party environments — there is deeply inappropriate content that children can stumble into without any direct contact from a predator. And it's important for listeners to understand — we have two jobs as attorneys closely involved in this. One is to represent our clients as best we can and make sure they receive the justice they deserve. Two — we can educate families and hopefully prevent more unnecessary predation on Roblox until actual systemic changes are made by the company itself.

Stan Gipe: You would be shocked to find out there are avatar-based pornography operations on Roblox. People whose avatars make pornographic content with other avatars. You can find this on YouTube. It's nothing like what you would expect if you're letting your six, ten, twelve, or fourteen-year-old child on this platform.

Matt Dolman: So where do we stand now? Our firms are part of the leadership in the multidistrict litigation. What's the status, Davis?

Davis Cooper: The Roblox cases from all over the country have been consolidated by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation into one MDL in the Northern District of California. Think of it as a class action type of approach — several firms appointed by a court to represent all of the plaintiffs involved in the case. The distinction from a class action is that in our cases, these Roblox victims have all sorts of different damages — they retain the ability to seek justice with their own individual case. The court recently appointed the leadership group that will be litigating the case on behalf of the plaintiffs. I'm proud to report that my partner Joe Masterman will be serving on the executive committee. We're at the very beginning stages — just stepping out of base camp with a mountain to climb. These cases take a really long time. But the process has started, the firms who are going to lead this effort have been chosen, and I can speak for the entire group when I say we are 100% committed and energized to bring justice for our clients.

Matt Dolman: It's all we work on — day and night — Roblox and cases against other platforms including Discord, which is another absolute cesspool. Most of the grooming starts on Roblox and often moves to another platform where the most serious conduct occurs — the dissemination of child sexual abuse materials.

Stan Gipe: The one takeaway from all of this — it doesn't just apply to Roblox. But Roblox needs to be the warning shot. To the extent your child is on the internet, do your research. Don't ask Roblox how safe Roblox is. Don't ask the platform you're on how safe the platform is — they may not be the best source. Go out there, look at other sources, dig. Because once you do that, you tend to find the truth. It's out there. You just have to look for it.

Matt Dolman: That's been another episode of the David and Goliath podcast. Thank you Davis for upping the IQ quotient in this room. Thanks everyone for joining us.

Davis Cooper: Thanks for having me, Matt and Stan. Appreciate it.