Woodville mum's warning after claims her 9-year-old daughter became victim of Roblox 'groomer'

A 'disgusted' mother from Woodville has issued an urgent warning over cyber-risks after her nine-year-old daughter was allegedly lured into sexual activity while playing an online gaming app.

The horrified mum says her daughter revealed that she had been subjected to an online sex act when innocently using the gaming platform Roblox.

She claims the youngster kept the incident a secret for a year before revealing what had happened following a lesson on internet grooming at her school. Now the nine-year-old is quiet and refuses to get dressed in front of her.

American-based Roblox admitted there may have been a 'vulnerability' at the time the incident happened but claims it was corrected shortly afterwards. It also says there are strict controls in place designed to keep gamers safe.

California-based Roblox is a user-generated gaming platform where users can create their own games or play games others have made. There is also the option to chat to other players, but this can be disabled.

Users can step into other online 'worlds' to play games, aimed at children aged between eight and 12. However, concerns have been raised that it is being used by adults looking to contact vulnerable youngsters.

The mother, who cannot be named, said: "My daughter was quite quiet for a while so I asked her what was wrong. But she started crying and said I would shout at her.

"She told me she had been playing on Roblox. I know children play on it and you can be friends with people you don't know somewhere else in the world. You can chat to people who are friends but also add strangers too.

"She was playing in a 'world' and someone who was supposedly a child started speaking to her. They had a male name and basically instigated sex. She told me she didn’t want to do it. She said he took her 'upstairs' and must have been describing what he was doing to her.

"She said she didn't like it and is very upset now. She said it happened months ago on her old account and didn't want to tell me as she thought I would shout at her."

The mother says she wants the Roblox game banned and claimed there had been other instances of groomers being outed on the site.

She said: "I want this game banned as it is well known for people preying on young children.

"We have been to the police but we don’t have the user ID or password as it happened about a year ago.

"I feel disgusted. I thought I was keeping her safe. I told her to tell me about anything weird. Now she won’t get dressed in front of me. She was too young to realise what had happened.

"I told her I would delete the game and she just said she didn’t want it anyway.

"I thought my child would tell me everything. You have to be really vigilant and keep an eye.”

A spokesman for Roblox said: "The vulnerability in the platform that may have led to this reported incident was corrected shortly after the timeframe the parent/child reported. We put strict controls in place not only on chat, but more importantly on the games/experiences themselves that the creators of these games must adhere to or their game will be removed from the platform.

"In addition to new games that must follow these protocols, existing games all needed to be updated to adhere to these guidelines, which is a process that started around this time last year.

"While no online social or entertainment platform can claim 100 per cent safety and security for its users, we feel very strongly that we have put the proper mechanisms in place to both empower and educate parents and more importantly give them the tools to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for their children.

"In addition, we have also aligned with support organisations on our advisory board that provide expertise and resources that we can use to continually update our safety protocols and utilise best practices from other organizations to make Roblox the best it can be."

Roblox outlines its thorough safety checks:

Roblox is an entertainment platform that supports imaginative play in a safe, supportive environment. We can assure you that we take safety on our platform seriously and have continuously improved features and processes in this area. We take great strides to ensure that:

The games published on our platform by our users are appropriate

• All games must comply with our Rules of Conduct .
• Our team of moderators review every uploaded image, video, and audio file used within our games to make sure they are safe and age-appropriate.
• We use automated detection technology to ensure that all players are wearing appropriate attire.

Communication between users is appropriate

• We use automated technology to monitor, and when appropriate, filter the communication between our users.
• We have significant restrictions for what users under 13 can share including the use of words or phrases that we feel could be potentially dangerous (for example sharing any numbers that could be part of a phone number or address).
• We also provide parental controls that enable parents to shut off in-game messaging and choose from a curated list of games for under 13 users.

Behaviour within the games is appropriate

• Players can report inappropriate behaviour using our Report Abuse system, which is located prominently throughout the site and in-game.
• Our team of hundreds of moderators is online around the clock to review.
• Users exhibiting bad behaviour have their Roblox accounts moderated which can include suspensions and deletion of their accounts on Roblox.

Roblox also believes that parental involvement is critical to a fun and safe experience. Roblox’s Parent's Guide has detailed information for parents about the Roblox platform and provides information that can help them create the Roblox experience that is best for their child.

Roblox is committed to being a leader in protecting the online safety of children and realises that no safety infrastructure is foolproof. We are continuously improving our systems and processes and when an incident does occur, we respond quickly.

We are board members of FOSI, the Family Online Safety Institute, and fully engaged with other leading trust and safety organisations . In addition, we are also a member of the Fair Play Alliance that focuses on civility and cyber-bullying. In the UK, we are also affiliated with the UK Southwest Grid For Learning which is part of the UK Safer Internet Centre.