Roblox Arbitration Clause Opposed by U.S. Senators in Child Sexual Assault Lawsuit Appeal

Senators say Congress specifically gave sexual assault survivors the right to pursue lawsuits in court rather than being forced into private arbitration.

Three U.S. Senators want a federal appeals court to block Roblox and Discord from forcing plaintiffs pursuing child sex exploitation lawsuits into arbitration, which many view as highly favorable to corporations.

Roblox and Discord face a series of child sex exploitation lawsuits filed by parents and young adults who say the platforms failed to protect children from sexual predators by neglecting to implement adequate child safety features.

However, Roblox and Discord have sought to move some of those claims out of court and into private arbitration, relying on provisions contained in their Terms of Service. The companies argue that users agreed to resolve disputes through arbitration rather than before a judge or jury when they accepted those terms.

In response, Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York filed an amicus brief (PDF) on August 28 with the California Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District. The brief argues that Congress intended to prevent sexual assault and sexual harassment claims from being forced into arbitration.

Roblox Child Sex Exploitation Risks

Roblox is an online gaming platform widely used by children, allowing users to create games, interact with other players and communicate through the platform.

However, lawsuits allege inadequate age verification and child safety measures allowed adults to pose as minors and groom children for sexual exploitation. Some lawsuits involve explicit images allegedly obtained from children, while others claim interactions that began on Roblox led to sexual assault, kidnapping or child sex trafficking.

Plaintiffs also allege predators sometimes moved conversations to Discord, where users can communicate through text, voice and video. Although Roblox has since introduced facial recognition and age-verification technology intended to restrict certain communications between adults and minors, plaintiffs maintain those safeguards came too late to prevent their injuries.

Roblox Arbitration Clause Opposition

The dispute centers on the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA), a federal law signed in 2022 that allows sexual assault and harassment survivors to reject certain pre-dispute arbitration agreements and pursue their claims in court.

In November, California Superior Court Judge Nina Shapirshteyn ruled that a Roblox lawsuit filed on behalf of a 13-year-old boy fell within the protections of the EFAA. As a result, she determined Roblox and Discord could not use arbitration provisions in their Terms of Service to force the case out of court.

Roblox and Discord appealed that ruling, asking the California Court of Appeal to reverse the decision.

Arbitration clauses are commonly included in consumer contracts and Terms of Service, requiring disputes to be resolved privately rather than before a judge or jury. Critics of forced arbitration argue that the process can favor corporations and prevent serious allegations from being litigated publicly.

“Congress understood that arbitration clauses all too often barred survivors from enforcing their rights under state and federal laws. Instead, the use of arbitration incentivized companies to protect offenders; in the context of sexual assault and harassment, arbitration clauses enabled corporate misconduct that in turn fostered even more abuse and it prevented survivors from sharing their experiences and warning others about dangerous companies and repeat offenders.”

– Amicus Brief by Senators Blumenthal, Durbin and Gillibrand

The three senators urged the appeals court to uphold the lower court’s ruling, arguing that these are precisely the types of sexual abuse claims Congress intended to protect from forced arbitration. They maintain the EFAA was passed in response to concerns that survivors were being denied access to public courts before a dispute ever arose.

Roblox Child Sex Exploitation Lawsuits

The debate comes as nearly 200 Roblox child sex exploitation lawsuits have been filed in federal courts nationwide. They are currently centralized in the Northern District of California as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) under U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg, who is overseeing coordinated discovery and other pretrial proceedings.

The judge is expected to order the creation of a bellwether trial program for the litigation, which would lead to attorneys selecting a series of representative cases that are most reflective of the claims as a whole. These cases would then go through additional discovery and be the first federal Roblox lawsuits to go before a jury.

While the outcomes of these bellwether trials would not be binding on other claims, the results could assist the parties in reaching a Roblox lawsuit settlement agreement. However, if the bellwether process and settlement negotiations fail to resolve the litigation, Judge Seeborg may eventually begin returning individual lawsuits to the federal courts where they were originally filed for separate trial dates.

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