The US Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism has opened a Roblox investigation into child safety practices on the platform. The subcommittee accuses the company of prioritizing “revenue and engagement metrics over the safety and well-being of our children.” The inquiry adds a congressional probe to a growing pile of legal and regulatory pressure already facing the company.
A letter sent to Roblox CEO David Baszucki, first reported by Kotaku, is signed by subcommittee chairman Josh Hawley and ranking member Dick Durbin. Roblox has repeatedly promised it is a safe place for children. The senators say “the public record raises serious questions about this promise,” and the Roblox investigation is meant to test that claim against the company’s internal records.
Hawley, a Missouri Republican, and Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, lead a subcommittee with jurisdiction over federal law enforcement oversight. Their joint signature signals bipartisan interest in Roblox’s safety practices, a rarity in a Congress otherwise divided on how far to regulate technology companies.
What the Roblox investigation letter alleges
The letter lists a string of criminal cases tied to the platform. “Over the past decade, police have arrested numerous individuals for committing serious acts of violence and harm against children they met via Roblox, including grooming, sexual abuse, kidnapping, rape, and even murder,” it reads.
The letter goes further. It accuses Roblox of being used to trade child sexual abuse material. It says predators use the platform to run sexually explicit virtual “experiences” involving children. Some, the letter claims, bribe and extort minors into producing explicit content, then lure them into in-person meetings. The senators call the pattern “heartbreaking.”
Hawley and Durbin order Roblox to preserve all records tied to child safety, abuse, and financial exploitation. The company must hand over the requested documents by the end of August 2026, a deadline that gives Roblox roughly two weeks to comply once the letter lands. “Let us be clear: children on your platform are hurting,” the letter concludes. “Congress will not look the other way.”
A rocky year for Roblox
The Senate inquiry lands during an already difficult stretch for the company. Roblox has spent months fighting claims that it is, as one investment research firm put it, a “pedophile hellscape.” The company has pushed back with tighter restrictions on unrated games. It has also added age estimation checks and new limited accounts meant to keep younger users away from inappropriate content.
Baszucki’s own public comments have not always helped his company’s case ahead of the Roblox investigation. In 2025 he described Roblox’s predator problem as “not just a problem, but an opportunity,” a line that landed poorly given the scale of the allegations. He also floated turning Roblox into a dating hub. He made that remark while the company already faced legal action from Louisiana, Kentucky, Florida, Texas, and Los Angeles County.
Australia and the United Kingdom have opened their own inquiries over alleged systemic child safety failures. At one point, Baszucki told worried parents directly: “Don’t let your kids be on Roblox.” That remark came from the same executive whose company has spent the past year insisting the platform is safe for children.
Roblox’s user base remains large but has cooled from its peak. That slowdown has weighed on the company’s share price, though the stock still trades close to where it sat through 2023 and 2024. Roblox has also picked up some outside recognition during this stretch. The US Attorney General Alliance praised the company for working directly with policymakers on child safety policy, even as individual states pursue their own cases.
A subcommittee like Hawley and Durbin’s carries a tool that state attorneys general and foreign regulators do not have: subpoena power to compel Roblox executives to testify directly before federal lawmakers. The investigation also lands as Congress weighs broader child safety legislation that would require platforms to verify user ages and limit what content and recommendations reach minors.
Roblox’s response to the Senate investigation
Roblox says it is not looking away either. The company points to a sharp rise in reports of suspected child sexual exploitation sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The senators cite that figure directly in their letter. Roblox filed 65,381 such reports in 2025, more than double the 2024 total.
The company frames that increase as evidence its detection systems are catching more activity, not proof that abuse on the platform is accelerating. Roblox chief safety officer Matt Kaufman addressed the investigation in a statement provided to PC Gamer.
“Roblox is built on the foundation of safety,” Kaufman said. “We do not compromise on that commitment. We look forward to sharing the facts about how we work to protect children on the platform.”
What happens next
The subcommittee’s deadline gives Roblox until the end of August 2026 to comply with the records request. That is a tight window given the scope of what Hawley and Durbin are asking for. The request spans a decade of safety incidents and the internal decisions behind them.
Roblox now has to manage this Senate investigation alongside active lawsuits from multiple US states, a county government, and two national regulators overseas. None of that combined pressure has forced the company to change its core product yet.
The age verification tools and account restrictions Roblox rolled out over the past year remain its primary defense. Executives continue to argue those changes are working as intended. Whether the subcommittee agrees will depend on what it finds once it reviews the records Roblox is now required to hand over.
A congressional subcommittee cannot fine Roblox or force policy changes on its own, unlike the lawsuits piling up in state and foreign courts. Its findings can still shape future legislation, and a records request signed by both parties adds political weight that no single state case carries alone.
Roblox has spent a year fighting lawsuits on three continents. This new Senate investigation is one more front in a fight that shows no sign of ending soon.