West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey, a Republican, said in a statement that the settlement stemmed from his state’s investigation into Roblox, which found that the platform exposed young users to predators, grooming, and sexual and violent content.
The settlement was reached before a lawsuit was filed, but a complaint and a consent judgment memorialising the agreement are expected to be filed on Tuesday, according to McCuskey’s office.
Separately, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, also a Republican, said his state had also settled with Roblox after an investigation. A document detailing the terms was signed by the company and the state on Tuesday.
The deals come days after Roblox announced a similar settlement with the state of Nevada.
As part of the West Virginia deal, Roblox will pay $11,080,000 to the state over several years. More than $4 million of the money will fund a dedicated West Virginia safety specialist, child safety workshops for parents and children in the state and an awareness campaign for parents, and the rest will go into the state’s consumer protection fund, McCuskey’s office said.
Under the company’s agreement with Alabama, the state will receive $12,200,000 that will be used to fund school resource officers across the state, Marshall’s office said. The state could receive an additional $5 million if Roblox breaches the terms of the settlement at any point over the next four years, according to the agreement.
After the announcements, representatives for Roblox said the company valued its collaboration with the attorneys general and the safety of its users remains a priority.
Under the terms of both settlements, the California-based company will implement age verification for all users and restrict who users who are under 16 may chat with and what content they may view, the states said.
Last week, Roblox said it was making nationwide changes to how teens and children can use its site. In part, the company said it was making changes to its age verification procedures, implementing facial age checks for chat access and introducing age-based accounts with more restrictions and expanding parental controls.
Roblox is facing more than 140 lawsuits in federal court accusing the company of knowingly facilitating child sexual exploitation. Separately, state attorneys general in Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and Florida have sued the company over similar claims.
The ongoing lawsuits against Roblox, which were filed beginning last year, accuse the company of designing a gaming platform marketed to children that enables predators to target and contact them. The plaintiffs, who are people who say they were sexually abused or exploited as minors by people they met on Roblox, allege the company failed to warn parents of the risk and did not take action to protect its young users.
Roblox has denied wrongdoing in those cases.
