After YouTuber “Schlep,” known for conducting sting operations against child predators, was banned from the popular gaming platform Roblox in August 2025, a firestorm of controversy erupted. The decision sparked widespread backlash and intensified ongoing criticism of Roblox’s child safety protocols, drawing new scrutiny from lawmakers, parents, and the gaming community. Roblox banned YouTuber “Schlep” in August 2025 as he was citing violations of its Terms of Service for, “simulated child endangerment conversations” and moving conversations off-platform. This decision intensified controversy over child safety measures, leading to backlash, lawsuits, and subsequent policy changes by Roblox, including tighter restrictions on content, expanded age verification, and heightened moderation efforts.
“Countries like China, Kuwait, and Turkey have banned roblox. It’s interesting how AI is an algorithm but you don’t know for sure if it is true,” stated Tony Raddatz, a teacher and the E-sports club coach at Ridgeview high school.
Even though roblox isn’t banned in the U.S, but banned in other countries, the United States is facing lawsuits and shut down requests for it to be banned even having a petition of 230,000 people for the company to have the CEO’s resignation. With AI and deception making this occur as technology is getting more real and manipulative making it easier for grown adult predators to trick the victims into the awful things that happened to them, the youngest of these victims being only eight years old.
“The advice I’d give to kids is don’t give your personal information out,” advised Tison Peters, an E-sports club member. “Roblox should have to take the safety of minors a lot more seriously,”
Roblox’s weak precautions has made kids have to endure what these deceptive predators have done, because they were able to access and use the vulnerability of these minors as roblox underlooked what could destroy anyone by not having the right security on their platform. Now the company is facing much criticism for the actions that could have been prevented if roblox didn’t have the systemic issues such as weak age verification, ineffective chat filters, encouragement of off-platform communication, and having unsafe content.
Louis Gonzalez, another E-sports member here at Ridgeview High School stated, “They should have added more strict parental controls.” Also claiming, “Kids should log out of the game if someone is telling them to do something,”
Children can be exposed to adult themes, cyberbullying, predators, and manipulation, especially in user-generated content and through the platform’s communication features. While roblox added some new security on their platform, the localized nature of user-created games and the potential for sophisticated grooming tactics highlights the ongoing need for strong parental oversight and for teaching children how to recognize and respond to red flags and inappropriate behavior.
Raddatz explained, “Their factual renovation, secure software development lifecycle, and their modeling, shows that games will have warnings as it’s a standard with all games, but it’s clear that in-game-chat is a concern and we need adult security.”
