Louisiana Versus Roblox

Jim Chapman Covers the Lawsuit Louisiana AG Liz Murrill has brought against the Roblox Corporation, alleging violations of state consumer protection law, and asserting claims of negligence, public nuisance, and unjust enrichment. The complaint alleges that Roblox, a popular online gaming service for children and teens, has failed to implement basic safety measures, endangering child safety by facilitating child exploitation and the distribution of child sexual abuse material. The complaint also alleges that Roblox failed to inform child users and their parents of the dangers of using the platform. 

Timestamps
04:54 Roblox's User Demographics
07:25 Age Verification Concerns
10:35 Chat Features and Safety
15:15 Inappropriate Content on Roblox
18:32 The Role of Law Enforcement
27:07 Lawsuit Implications and Child Safety
28:30 Proposed Safety Measures
36:40 Uncovering the Dangers of Roblox
40:59 Child Protection

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of
the Elite. I'm your host, Jim Chapman, and today I'm
going to bring you some really wild news out of
my state of Louisiana. And if you are a parent,
you are going to especially want to pay attention to this. So,

(00:20):
the state of Louisiana has filed suit, in fact, the
first state to file suit against the gaming app Roadblocks,
and it's very disappointing what the State of Louisiana has uncovered.
I would go as far as to say very disturbing
what the State of Louisiana has uncovered. And as is

(00:41):
typical with these types of cases, I like covering right
from the lawsuit so as to make sure all the
facts are covered and I'll make my opinions or otherwise
as we go along. So here are the factual allegations
as they read in that lawsuit. Launched in two thousand

(01:02):
and six, Roadblocks is an interactive online gaming platform that
creates a new category of human interactions. Users can play
mirored games on Roadblocks, referred to as quote experiences. They
are currently more than six point four million experiences within

(01:24):
the Roadblocks ecosystem. Imagine that six point four million Roadblocks
has complete control over the platform hosting the experiences, including
but not limited to warnings associated with those experiences, age verification,
age restrictions for each experience, policies and rules regarding inappropriate conduct,

(01:47):
monitoring for inappropriate conduct, and handling and facilitating any reports
of complaints by users. Roadblocks is easily accessible, including the
children as young as six years old. It is free
to download and play and is available on gaming consoles, computers, tablets,

(02:07):
and cell devices. An account can easily be set up
by a child in just a matter of minutes without
a parent. Roadblocks is designed to be an interactive experience,
allowing and encouraging users to communicate and interact with each
other in real time gameplay interactions, User hubs, direct messaging,

(02:28):
and voice chat all promote social interactions between and among users.
Roadblocks co founder and CEO has explained that his vision
for Roadblocks is to bring about quote the next phase
of human interaction, which he described as a new category
of human co experiences. Roadblocks explained that it operates a

(02:50):
human co experience platform where users interact with each other
to explore and develop immersive user generated three B experiences
blocks designed for young children. Roadblocks is not only the
number one gaming site for kids and teens, but also
an educational experience for children. Roadblocks claims that it provides

(03:12):
new gateways into learning from chemistry to physics, to robotics
and more. And look, y'all, I have three kids, all
of them when they were younger. They're all adults now,
but when they were younger, they played Roadblocks, and when
it started, that was what it was about. Initially, it
was a learning platform, and it taught them a lot

(03:36):
of interesting things, made them use their mind. It was
kind of like a gaming version of puzzles, if you will.
But it has changed as we'll get into it. Goes
on to say Roadblocks experiences bring concepts of life in
ways that immerse learners and motivate exploration, play in deep thinking.
And in the lawsuit here it's saying how Roadblocks markets

(03:58):
itself saying the State of Louisiana agrees with this. These offerings,
according to Roadblocks, include high quality, standard aligned, immersive educational
experiences designed by curriculum experts. Roadblocks popularity among children exploded
during the pandemic when it was flooded with millions of

(04:20):
new users as children's were confined to their homes. By
September of twenty twenty, roughly thirty one point one million
people from around the world, more than half of them
under the age of thirteen, were on Roadblocks daily, making
it the world's biggest recreational zone for kids. That growth

(04:41):
has continued unabated. In Roadblocks twenty twenty four to twenty
five annual report, the company reports an average of eighty
two point nine million daily active users. But what's more
shocking than that twenty percent under the age of nine,
twenty percent from nine to twelve, sixteen percent from thirteen

(05:05):
to sixteen years old. And here's the shocking part, forty
four percent at seventeen years of age or over. And
let me be the first to say, if you're seventeen
or older and you're playing Roadblocks, you need to get
a life. Sorry, nod zorry. Today, Roadblocks is the most
downloaded online gaming system globally, and based on twenty twenty

(05:30):
three statistics, the average user spends almost three hours two
point four to be exact hours per day on Roadblocks. Shocking.
As noted, individuals who wish to play Roadblocks must first
create an account. It's extremely easy to sign up and
start having fun. As they promoted, users are only required

(05:52):
to provide a birth date, user name, and password, so
you don't have to prove anything. You can say you're
fourteen and you're forty nine, and it's going to go
with what you say. It's the honor system right. Users
of any age can create an account. There is no minimum. Further,
the defendant, Roadblocks does not require users to verify their

(06:16):
age upon sign up. As such, users can easily represent
their younger or older than their actual age, so for example,
that child predators can pose as children, and that's really
what this is all about. Although Roadblocks states that children
are to have parents permission before signing up for an account,

(06:36):
Roadblocks does not have any safety features to prevent children
from creating their own accounts or playing on Roadblocks. Indeed,
Roadblocks does nothing to confirm a document that parental permission
has been given, so essentially these kids can lie and
say they're younger or older these adults same thing. Road

(07:00):
Blocks does not require a parent to confirm the age
given when a child signs up to use Roadblocks. Roadblocks
has access to biometric age verification software that requires a
user to place a photo or government issued idea along
with real time selfie photo that is verified through artificial intelligence. However,

(07:22):
Roadblocks utilizes the software for other purposes. Roadblocks intentionally does
not use this feature when new counts are created. And
that's the part, the very first part of this that
I'm covering that shocked me. What the State of Louisiana
is basically saying here is they have the technology to

(07:42):
do it, and they already use it for some features,
just not for signing up. Why is that. Well, in
my opinion and in the State of Louisiana's opinion, it's
because it's going to hurt their bottom line if they
do that. We'll get into more of that. Roadblocks still
relies on self reportive birthdays for age verification, and Roadblocks

(08:03):
is intentionally designed to allow users to create accounts using
fake birthdays, allowing adults to pose as children, and allowing
children to easily circumvent the more restrictive controls for account
users under the age of thirteen. After creating an account,
all users are assigned a default player avatar, a character

(08:25):
that represents the individual within certain games. Users can then
play in millions of experiences on Roadblocks, which are much
like video games. These games are sorted into different genres
and categories such as sports, role playing, fighting, first person shooters, fashion, horror, comedy, military,

(08:46):
and naval. The games recommended to a user will vary
based on the age the user entered when generating their
account and the Roadblocks algorithm that recommends games to that user.
To twenty twenty four, when a child created an account,
the default setting was for parental protections to be turned off.

(09:09):
Can you believe that As a result, if a child
made their own account and listed their ages thirteen year
older than any experience was available to that child. Further,
until November of twenty twenty four, Defendant's default setting for
Roadblocks allot adults to easily communicate with children. Adult strangers

(09:30):
could find friends and chat with a child of any
age via direct message or private message and invite a
child to private servers or other experiences on the platform,
And after entering an experience, users could chat with other
users in the experience, whether or not they are friends.

(09:52):
That is, the option to disable chat with strangers inexperienced
was turned off by default. Now, under Roadblock's default settings,
adults cannot directly message children under thirteen outside of experiences. However,
messaging can still be done from within the experiences as

(10:15):
well as get this parents that didn't realize this voice chatting. Further,
children under thirteen can still receive friends requests while within
the experiences. As such, despite these recent changes, Roadblocks continues
to make children highly vulnerable to predators. Defendant generates revenue

(10:37):
in part by selling users on a platform exclusive currency
called roebucks, which must be purchased using real world currency
before exchanging roebucks or digital content in the closed digital economy.
Roebucks can be purchased in a single transaction, or a

(10:58):
user may subscribe to receive roebucks on a recurring basis
with a Roebucks premium membership. Defendant also offers roebucks gift
cards that anyone can purchase and send to any user,
and that's important. Children frequently become obsessed with purchasing or
otherwise obtaining roebucks to buy items for their avatars and

(11:21):
to spend in their favorite experiences on roebucks. In Defendant's
avatar store, for example, the company sells what they call
rare items at astronomical prices, such as the type of
hair for an avatar, which children seek to purchase to
keep up with or outdo their peers on Roadblocks. As
a result, children often tell others, including strangers, they will

(11:45):
do quote anything for roebucks. Definitet success and continued growth
has hinged on its constant assurances to parents that Roadblocks
is safe for children. Defendant has done this throughout its
history and in every form possible on its website, through
public promises of its highest executives, in news articles, on podcasts,

(12:09):
and so on. Over the years, Defendant has repeatedly represented
that Roadblocks is safe for children and has misrepresented the
safety controls it has in place. As early as two
thousand and seven, Defendant's website is shared parents that Roadblocks
is an online virtual playground where kids of all ages
can safely interact, create, have fun, and learn. From two

(12:32):
thousand and eight to twenty sixteen, the Defendant's website continue
to promise parents quote we take every precaution possible to
make sure kids are protected. Defendant also assured parents and
has a zero tolerance for swearing in obscenities, messages, and
content of sexual or violent nature, in any sort of
threatening communication, and will immediately suspend or permanently expel any offenders,

(12:58):
which was not accurate. Indeed, Defendant has constantly sought to
paint Roadblocks as a family friendly, safe for children of
all ages platform. Because Roadblocks is deceptive by design, children
are exposed to graphic sexual material and existing safety features
are inadequate. For example, Roadblocks chat filtering feature is designed

(13:21):
to filter inappropriate content and personal information on accounts age
twelve and younger, but is less restrictive for accounts thirteen
and above. However, these filters are easily bypassed by obscuring
texts with alphanumeric combinations. And it gives an example, and
it says ditty P and then one three ns. Now,

(13:47):
if you look at that really fast, write it out
on a piece of paper right now, and look at
P one three n s, it looks like the word penis.
Not only does this permit a workaround for explicit language,
but it also allows players to circumvent filters. So basically
what they're saying there is there's an algorithm set up
to catch certain words, but people just write it like

(14:10):
I just told you, or they'll even go as far
as to spell the word backwards. And these kids now
know that if a word is like gibberish looking, they
read it backwards, and for example that they want you
to go to snapchat, instead of writing snap, they'll write
go to pans, which is snap spelled backwards, and these

(14:33):
kids know what that means. It's the same thing as
for a lot of us on TikTok, instead of saying murder,
you say schmerder, and it fools the algorithm. Supposedly, I
don't believe it does that because you can't tell me
that TikTok doesn't know people say schmirder. But anyway, we'll
move on, so it says. As early as twenty ten,

(14:55):
Defended had already devolved into hosting and promoting sexually exploded content.
Defendant scripting language allowed developers to manipulate avatar activity and
interactions any way they want, which was deployed to create
scenarios where avatars engage in simulated sex on roadblock. The
simulated sexual activity pervades roadblocks. As defenditt Well knows, there

(15:21):
has been numerous reports of children's avatars being raped by
other users avatars. For example, in twenty eighteen, a seven
year old girl's avatar was violently raped by two male
avatars on a playground in a Roadblocks experience, which was
witnessed by the girl's mother. In describing the aftermath of

(15:42):
the experience, the girl's mother explained, I never, in my
wildest dreams would have imagined that I would have to
talk to my seven year old about rape. Think about that.
Roadblocks also host a staggering number of experiences centered around
simulated sexual activity or incense. Children can play condo games

(16:03):
quote unquote predatory digital environments, including houses where users can
remove their avatar's virtual clothing, revealing nidity and engage in
simulated sexual activities with other Roadblocks users. They can also
play games like get this quote public Bathroom simulator Vibe,

(16:25):
which allows access to users as young as nine years
old and enables users to simulate sexual activity in virtual bathrooms,
as well as virtual strip clubs where child avatars perform
sexually explicit acts like giving lap dances to patrons. A
recent investigative report also exposed a multitude of other exploitive

(16:47):
experiences on Roadblocks that gammify serious criminal conduct, including rape.
The report confirmed the defendant hosted over six hundred ditty
games with titles like quote Diddy run from Ditty Simulator
and Didty Party, which appeared to recreate reported incidents involving

(17:09):
the music muggle Shawn Combs, publicly known as Ditty, who
was federally indicted and underwent trial for sex trafficking. This
report also revealed the defendant was actively hosting more than
nine hundred Roadblocks accounts displaying variations of convicted sex trafficker
Jeffrey Epstein's name, such as quote Jeffrey Epstein's supporter, whose

(17:32):
account defendant knew was interacting with children on its servers.
Defendant also hosted its server games like quote Escape to
Epstein Island, which again is a title that directly references
one of the locations where for years, Jeffrey Epstein traffic miners.
As such, Roadblocks is deceptive and inadequately designed in mired ways,

(17:56):
including but not limited to the lack of apt actual
age verification process. Defend its failure to ensure age appropriate experiences.
Defend its deceptive and inadequate monitoring and failure to warn
parents and children of dangers of saciety. We're Roadblocks, including
but not limited to Roadblocks' exploitation dangers, and y'all, it

(18:21):
just goes on and on with this bullshit. I mean,
there are a myriad of examples, some forty pages in
this lawsuit. So I want to cover a couple of things,
and then I'm going to play a clip for you,
but just quickly. What I want to cover, what this
is all about, at the end of the day, is

(18:42):
to try to get roadblocks off their ass and get
safety features for their product. In Louisiana, we have, like
several other states, we have something called EYKAC, which is
Internet Crimes against Children and it's the task force put
together by the state Attorney General Liz Murrel. So what

(19:06):
this is designed to do is, you know, as you
can already probably imagine, is go after predators. That's the
whole point of it. Predators are not like they were
let's say in the nineties and early two thousands, where
to be a predator on children you had to actually
approach children. It's a hell of a lot easier these days.

(19:26):
And what makes it really easy is a lot of
parents don't understand the chat features and a lot of
these games. How many times have I told y'all on
bad teachers, ninety nine point nine percent of the time
they're gaining access to these kids through a chat feature Snapchat,
Instagram or even games. They'll say, let's go play words

(19:49):
with friends, and they'll go into Words with friends and
they'll start chatting with these miners. Same situation here, except
for twenty percent of these people playing this or under
the age of thirteen. In this company, Roadblocks is a
global company. It's public. You buy stock ownership into this
company billions of billions of dollars. Is worse. So this

(20:13):
is a way to strike Roadblocks where it hurts, which
is in their pocketbook. They have to start answering for
why their profit got taken by the State of Louisiana
some of their profit anyway, due to this lawsuit. And
whoever sits at that table, they're border directors are going
to say, we need to tighten up our safety features

(20:34):
because they're culpable in all of this because they allow it.
Escape from Epstein Island. Seriously, So I'm play you a clip.
Now this is a press conference. I was actually at this,
so you're gonna hear some of the police discuss cases,
particular cases quickly, and then the Attorney General answers questions

(20:55):
from the media. And now after this press conference, the
Attorney General did a pretty good five minute interview that
I'm also going to include in this discussing the case.
So here's that.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
Before finish, I just would like Alson Jarifola to come
forward please and throw if you will, go over.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
Our case with some Alson.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Def nee.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
In late twenty twenty four, our office, working with the
FBI's Internet Crimes Against Children's Task Force, investigated a twenty
year old Baton rouge man linked to two separate juvenile
victims in different states. In one case, he solicited explicit
images from a fourteen year old after learning her age.
In another, he extorted a fifteen year old for money

(21:40):
to keep him from releasing explicit images. Evidence also revealed
a video depicting the sexual abuse of a child under thirteen.
He was arrested on multiple counts, including indecent behavior with juveniles,
computer aided solicitation of a minor, and possession of child
sexual abuse material. This case shows our commitment, alongside our

(22:03):
federal partners, to aggressively pursue anyone who targets and exploits children,
wherever they may be.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
And closing on behalf of our deputies and investigators. I
want to once again thank Attorney General for making strong
action to protect our children and for holding companies responsible
when they fail to act.

Speaker 5 (22:27):
I know.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Loiz Merrill has been outstanding Attorney General in her term
so far, and I know where she will continue to
be and I know that in her heart this is
a very very personal matter when it comes to our children,
as it should.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Be with all of us.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
So I want to thank you again for what you
and your team are doing. And at this time I
think introduce David Farrell.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Hey, good afternoon. So I'll start off by saying this.

Speaker 5 (23:05):
When I first had children, the best advice I got
was that you can't raise your.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
Kids the way you were raised because the.

Speaker 5 (23:13):
Reality is the world I grew up in, in the
world we grew up in.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
Doesn't exist anymore. So if we were to raise our
kids the same way we were raised, that world doesn't exist.

Speaker 5 (23:23):
Technology created an environment that created.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
A much smaller world.

Speaker 5 (23:29):
Kids currently are online, going to school, that's where their
socializing is, that's where they're gaming is, that's where they live,
and so.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
That's where predators live.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
Unfortunately, the days of us the stranger danger of the
guy in the park, because that's the one in the
trench coade. Kids aren't in the park anymore. Where do
kids live now? And kids live on these types of platforms.
They live on the roadblocks, they live on these different
social media platforms, and so that's where our focus as
law enforcement has to be in order to protect our

(24:00):
children here in Louisiana. Now, Roadblocks, as the Attorney General
has already mentioned, has well over fifty percent of the
US youth using roadblocks on a monthly basis.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
So we have an obligation here in Louisiana.

Speaker 5 (24:15):
And a responsibility here in Louisiana to protect our children
in Louisiana.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
The problem is Roadblocks also.

Speaker 5 (24:22):
Has a responsibility and an obligation to provide the safest
possible platform they can for our children to be on.
While we have not failed our job and we are
doing everything we can, Roadblocks has failed their job. They
failed to do the bare minimum to provide any type
of safeguards for the children of Louisiana.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
So they were launched in two thousand and six. Their
first report.

Speaker 5 (24:46):
Of child exploitation to the National Center for Missingexploited Children
didn't occur for thirteen years.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
It was twenty nineteen.

Speaker 5 (24:54):
Was the first time Roadblocks actually reported an incident of
child exploitation on their network. Now, let's think about that,
they have on average four million users monthly. With four
million users monthly, we would expect those numbers to be
astronomical the number of reports that are coming in.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
But currently roadblock has only reported.

Speaker 5 (25:19):
Twenty four thousand cases of child online child exploitation in
the last year. So four million cases monthly, I'm sorry,
four million users monthly, four hundred million I apologize, four
hundred million users monthly and twenty four thousand cases roughly.

(25:39):
So in Louisiana, as the Journey General mentioned, our numbers
are just skyrocketing in the Internet crops against Children's Task Force.
We were sitting at right at fourteen thousand cybertips, fourteen
thousand individual cases, individual offenders or victims here.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
In Louisiana last year.

Speaker 5 (25:55):
Of those fourteen thousand, Roadblocks made up less than one percent.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Now imagine half of every half of the population.

Speaker 5 (26:06):
Every kid in Louisiana is on roadblocks on a monthly basis,
but less than one percent of the cases we're receiving
come from Roadblocks.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
Now, let's compare that to some of the other platforms.

Speaker 5 (26:21):
That are out there, and I'm not gonna say one
is better than the other. But let's just look at
platforms that are similar size, So the facebooks, the snapchats,
the Instagram, those types of platforms Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
And Google.

Speaker 5 (26:34):
If you compare their numbers and you average what reports
they provide to the National Center and should those are
those reports that we receive from the internet crimes against children.
They are averaging three and a half million reports a year,
three and a half million on these sized platforms. Roadblocks
is just as large, and they're averaging twenty four thousand.

(26:57):
They're not even attempting to protect the children of the Louisiana.
And that's what you see here per standing here in
front of you today is Louisiana is going to protect
the children the best way we can. And whether that
be through a suit against Roadblocks or whether that be
executing a search warned at any predator's house, we will
do everything we can to keep our children safe.

Speaker 6 (27:29):
So, just to kind of recap and then we'll take
some questions, Roadblocks is perpetuating violence against children and sexual
exploitation for profit.

Speaker 7 (27:39):
If you want to know why, that's the answer.

Speaker 6 (27:42):
They want to keep as much engagement as possible. If
they were to limit the kids or the kids interaction
on this site, it would lower their user engagement numbers
that would affect them and their profit margins.

Speaker 7 (27:57):
So they've chosen profits of child safety.

Speaker 6 (28:02):
It's basically open season for sex predators on this app.

Speaker 7 (28:07):
For this reason and all of the.

Speaker 6 (28:08):
Others that we've talked about today, Roadblocks is violating Louisiana
law and that's why we filed this lawsuit here in
the twenty first first JDC. At the end of the day,
I think Roadblocks should be shut down that I'll have
be happy to take any questions that you have about
the lawsuit.

Speaker 7 (28:27):
We'll starve here.

Speaker 6 (28:29):
Are you're certain protections that you would wife to see.

Speaker 5 (28:34):
I'm interested in common that you would like to see
an app shut down, but you need that there are
some protections. Take food with place, sort of just keep
your money since play have.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Your garification in the ash apple questions.

Speaker 6 (28:50):
Yeah, look so for starters, assuming we didn't have the
kind of statistics that we have on Roadblocks and the
sex predators sort of penchant to use this app, I
think that the age verification side of it is extremely important.
That is something that other apps are doing. They can
do it a lot more vigorously than they are.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (29:11):
There are mechanisms that you can check to try and
double verify, not that you don't just go in and
create an account and get to say whatever age you
want to say that you are. There are mechanisms that
you can use to have some redundancy in checking that.
Parental screening and parental controls those are important too, making
sure the parent has approved, preventing kids from being able

(29:32):
to work around the restrictions that a parent might put
on the app. There are a lot of things that
other app developers are doing.

Speaker 7 (29:43):
We have a law now.

Speaker 6 (29:44):
That requires age verification for pornography websites, and I mean
they're complying unless they're I mean, we have one I
think who's from out of his country, and I don't
think they're compliant.

Speaker 7 (29:55):
But the other ones I believe are.

Speaker 6 (29:57):
So, you know, there are some pretty clear tech tools
that they could be using and they're simply not using them.

Speaker 7 (30:04):
That's the that's a choice that they've made.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
The first state to.

Speaker 6 (30:13):
Investigated, I believe we're the first state to sue.

Speaker 7 (30:16):
We're not the first person to.

Speaker 6 (30:18):
See I mean, there's there are some individuals who have sued,
but I believe we're the first state to follow suit.

Speaker 7 (30:24):
My next question, I would have to say, I spoke
with the alphice last year alongst time on this civil issue.

Speaker 6 (30:30):
More.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
I guess why, Well, thirteen thousand cases, I know he
said fourteen? Who's there? Specifically?

Speaker 1 (30:35):
I spoke with plic case so on we get to it,
I guess today stood or as a whole, as who's
you only been investiating, or.

Speaker 6 (30:42):
As capta precon through the ikak unit. I mean, David,
I think are total numbers to date that I'm aware
of were somewhere around twenty three thousand this year.

Speaker 5 (30:52):
So we're at thirteen thousand, six hundred and forty four
last year, and we are the year obviously hasn't been
completed yet, but we're estimating about a teen thousand when
we're done for the year.

Speaker 6 (31:02):
So these numbers are doubling almost every year now, and
that that is very very concerning. And so when you
have an app like this one that is doing the
absolute minimum, and not not only that they're doing the
absolute minimum minimum, but but we know what the results are.

Speaker 7 (31:19):
I mean, this isn't a secret.

Speaker 6 (31:20):
There's all kinds of discussions on the internet about how
dangerous this app is, and yet their principles are out
there saying things like, you know, safety's in our DNA,
which is flagrantly false.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Go ahead, no good, hey Ethan, goom Louisia our first moon.

Speaker 5 (31:39):
So, like you mentioned the rise from these cases, what
other roles to community and leaders or even parents play
to you know, up to take children and just keep
them safe from these industries.

Speaker 6 (31:50):
Look, this isn't all hands on deck challenge.

Speaker 7 (31:53):
It really is.

Speaker 6 (31:54):
And and as a parent, I mean I think that
you know, I'm grateful that my sons are older right now,
because this is just a huge problem for young kids.
I mean I talked to one mom about this potentially,
you know, when we were getting ready to follow this lawsuit,
and she said, you mean the app that I just
let my son download today.

Speaker 7 (32:14):
I said, yeah, that's the one. So, you know, I
think we have to educate.

Speaker 6 (32:18):
The public about the dangers of both this app and others.

Speaker 7 (32:22):
We have to educate people about any system.

Speaker 6 (32:24):
That allows your child to chat with somebody unchecked through
the app. I mean, we have seen other significant problems
with predators moving children to discord. That's another app that
we've seen a lot of problems with Snapchat is another
one I've seen on this app that that even if

(32:46):
they have particular software that might ban certain words, they'll
spell it backwards and they can get around it.

Speaker 7 (32:52):
So you know, you'll see somebody.

Speaker 6 (32:54):
Chatting with a child, you can see the dialogue and
it'll say let's go to and it'll spell snap backwards.
So you know, there are things that I think the
app can be doing to better identify this kind of conduct.

Speaker 7 (33:07):
They should be taking these sites off. I mean, just
these websites.

Speaker 6 (33:11):
About you know, public bathroom simulators. I mean really, you know,
having condo games where young children can be in there
and their their avatar is naked. I mean, there's there
is no justification for this. So parents need to be involved.
There's no doubt that parents have to be involved. And

(33:31):
and you know, I agree with what David said. It's
not the way that we grew up as kids. It's
a whole different world. Your child is not safe at
home when they have that phone in their hand. Go ahead, right, Yeah,

(33:55):
I supported that law that was ken Cartersville.

Speaker 7 (33:58):
I believe supported that law.

Speaker 6 (34:00):
It requires the platforms that that that host a lot
of these apps and sell them through their app stores.

Speaker 7 (34:06):
I think that they have an obligation as well.

Speaker 6 (34:09):
Some of them have talked to me and they would
prefer for the duty to rest on the shoulders of
the app developers. It's their job as well. I mean,
it belongs to everybody. This is that My position is
that everybody who can do something should do something.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
That was one of the cases that a huge issue
I know, as a plate that is in forefront a
lot of states trying to tap them six stores and
so try something that's more uptoms we use specify cases.

Speaker 6 (34:42):
Yes, I mean, and that's one of the ways that
they can exploit kids. I mean, first they lure them
into to communicate with them and lure them into a relationship,
and then they.

Speaker 7 (34:52):
You know, they groom them and then convince them.

Speaker 6 (34:54):
I mean, if you have a young girl or boy
and that person leaves that they are communicating with someone
who is the same age and somehow convinces them to
send a picture. Now they've got the picture, and then
the sextortion begins. So not exclusive to this app, but
I mean it's definitely a problem. You know, we've seen

(35:17):
kids commit suicide because of that and it's scary.

Speaker 5 (35:20):
You know.

Speaker 6 (35:21):
I mean, you just you don't know what's happening with
your child and you find out later, and I just,
you know, my heart breaks every time I hear something
like that, because you know, you just want kids to
reach out if they encounter that kind of situation.

Speaker 7 (35:36):
Again.

Speaker 6 (35:36):
Education, Education, like letting people know this is this is wrong,
it's illegal. There are people that will listen to you
and will pursue it, and we will hold them accountable.

Speaker 8 (35:49):
Parents of young children might be familiar with the gaming
platform Roadblocks. Launched in two thousand and six, Roadblocks enables
users to experience a wide array of games and experiences,
some of which are designed by the platform's own users.
Roadblocks currently has eighty two million active users, with nearly
twenty percent of those users under the age of nine.

Speaker 9 (36:09):
And that is a basis of a lawsuit now fouled
by the Louisiana Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murle against Roadblocks,
which he alleges has failed to implement an age verification process,
making it a breeding ground for pedophiles who can easily
create fake birthdays to gain access into the platform.

Speaker 8 (36:27):
Part of ag Murle's lawsuit against roadblocks reads as follows.
For years, Defendant has knowingly enabled and facilitated the systematic
sexual exploitation and abuse of children across the United States,
including in Louisiana. Through wilful disregard and deceptive practices, Defendant
has perpetuated an online environment in which child predators thrive,

(36:50):
directly contributing to the widespread victimization of minor children in Louisiana.
With that, it is our pleasure to welcome in the
Louisiana AG Liz Merle. Welcome and thanks so much for
coming on. Can you elaborate what you've been able to
uncover here and what's been alleged against this gaming program
when it comes to young users.

Speaker 6 (37:11):
You know, what's clear about this program is that it
is dangerous by design. They have deliberately kind of prevented
some of the tools to be used that would prevent
sex predators from having kind of you know, free range
use of the of the program to run down and

(37:33):
identify children to groom. And they've done that in order
to increase their user engagement. So absolutely putting profit over
the protection of our children. And this is a platform
where they know that almost sixty percent of their user base,
which is you know, on the order of hundreds of
millions of people.

Speaker 7 (37:55):
Is our children that are under the age of sixteen general.

Speaker 9 (37:59):
I want to talk about the statement that Roadblocks put
out here defending their platform. It reads this in part,
every day, tens of millions of users of all ages
have safe and positive experiences on Roadblocks abiding by the
company's community standards. Roadblocks takes any context or behavior on
the platform that doesn't abide by its standards extremely seriously,
and Roadblocks has a robust set of proactive and preventative

(38:22):
safety measures designed to catch and prevent malicious or harmful
activity on the platform. So clearly they don't agree with
this lawsuits your response to their statement.

Speaker 6 (38:32):
I think their statement is absurdly tone deaf, you know.
I mean the fact that they ignore the thousands and
millions of children that are being exposed to sex predators
on their app by saying that millions of them have
positive experiences on the app.

Speaker 7 (38:49):
Is tone deaf.

Speaker 6 (38:51):
I mean they are ignoring the clear and present danger
that exists for children on their app and trying to basically,
you know, cover over that by talking about the positive experiences.
The positive experience is pale when you look at the
negative ones and the exposure that our kids have to

(39:12):
extreme sexual exploitation and abuse on this app.

Speaker 8 (39:16):
Wow, I mean no question there is risk when you're
operating online and in many instances anonymous users, you don't
know exactly who the person is behind a character and
who they claim to be. My concern is, of course,
if this were to be taken offline, and so much
damage can be done when you're communicating back and forth

(39:36):
with someone remotely, even that can have an influence on
a young child or photos exchanged. But do you know
of any examples of when something happened offline from ropeblocks
and a child was impacted.

Speaker 6 (39:48):
Well, we do have numerous examples of that, and we
track as best we can through the KAC tips that
we get through the nickmickchips from the National Center for
Missing and to Children that are filtered down to our
states through our Internet Crimes against Children task forces. And
we have one example that we talk about in the
lawsuit where a sheriff was executing a warrant and at

(40:12):
the time they were executing the warrant, they walked in
on an individual who was masking his voice as a
fourteen year old girl on roadblocks attempting to groom a child.
And you know, part of what they do is they
may meet them, groom them, and then you know, they
can access them and.

Speaker 7 (40:29):
Talk to them on this app. They can also get
them to move to other apps.

Speaker 6 (40:34):
And I've seen some attempt to say that the actual
exploitation happens.

Speaker 7 (40:40):
On other apps, but this is the one where they
meet them and groom them and move them. So you know,
I don't think that's an answer either.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
So there you have it. Hopefully you're as upset as
I am about this. I'm sure you are if you're
listening to this show. We need to do whatever we
can to protect children, period, and the wild West that
these gaming apps have been having for years and years

(41:09):
is time for that to end. So hopefully we're going
to see some resolution, and maybe this is a good
start to it, Louisiana being the first date to sue
a major gaming platform like this. Shout out to Liz
Murell for doing the right thing. And until next time
for exposed scandalous files of the Elite, I'm your host,

(41:31):
Jim Chapman. Much love,