Lawsuit filed over alleged Roblox kidnapping amid stalled online child protection laws

At least two California laws aimed at safeguarding children online are not being utilized, as reported by CBS News California. The ineffectiveness of these laws was highlighted in a recent alleged kidnapping case involving the popular gaming platform Roblox.

The incident involved a 10-year-old girl from Southern California who was reportedly abducted by a man she met on Roblox, a platform popular among preteens. She was found by the police near the man's residence in Elk Grove, located south of Sacramento.

The girl's family has filed a lawsuit in the San Francisco Bay Area against Roblox, the gaming platform, and Discord, a third-party messaging app used by the man to communicate with the girl. This lawsuit is one of several filed this year on behalf of children who were allegedly groomed or exploited by adults on Roblox.

Despite the passing of two California laws, namely the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act and the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act, intended to protect children from online predators, the state Attorney General Rob Bonta is unable to enforce them. This is due to a lawsuit filed by NetChoice, an online trade association, arguing that the laws infringe on constitutional rights.

Roblox has stated that they allocate significant resources to detect and prevent inappropriate content and behavior on their platform. However, the responsibility currently lies with parents to activate age-appropriate protections by researching and understanding the available parental controls on Roblox's website.

Julie Watts, an investigative correspondent for CBS News, has been covering California, focusing on Capitol accountability reports and solutions-oriented journalism that airs weekly on CBS stations in the state.