(The Center Square) – Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows blasted the online gaming company Roblox for refusing to appear in person before a Texas House State Affairs Committee hearing. The company submitted written testimony instead.
The Texas House and Senate are holding hearings to address interim charges issued by their respective leaders ahead of next year’s legislative session. In April, Burrows added a new interim charge for the House to address: more safety measures for online gaming platforms “that have failed to address widespread harmful content and risks to minors.”
State Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, who chairs the bipartisan committee, was tasked with targeting “serious failures by gaming platforms like Roblox – where exploitative content and nominal safeguards are exposing Texas children to ongoing endangerment” and examining the prevalence of inappropriate virtual experiences on gaming platforms, Burrows said. The committee was also tasked with reviewing violent and sexually explicit content and communication between minors and adult strangers through online gaming platforms, The Center Square reported.
Burrows did so after state Rep. Don McLaughlin, R-Uvalde, and others raised concerns about a Roblox game that simulates the Robb Elementary School shooting that resulted in 19 children and two teachers being killed. McLaughlin was the mayor of Uvalde at the time of the shooting. Burrows chaired a 2022 House committee investigation into failures surrounding the shooting and helped propose reforms that have since been implemented.
Burrows previously posted screenshots of the video game simulation on social media. They appear to depict Lego style figurines with AR-15 type rifles walking through a hallway and into a classroom entitled, 'Active Shooter Studio’s Roblox game, ‘Robb.’”
Roblox is one of the most popular online gaming platforms in the world. The $2 billion company has 144 million daily users. “Its user base is younger than indicated by self-reported data,” CNBC reported. “Among daily users, 38% are between the ages of 13 and 17, 35% are under the age of 13 and 27% are over 18.” Roblox says, “it views its scale with young users as a ‘valuable strategic asset,’” CNBC added.
The Anti-Defamation League first sounded the alarm about Roblox Active Shooter Studios (A.S.S.) that created maps based on actual school shootings. A.S.S. “gained notoriety for creating Roblox maps that replicate real-life mass shootings, including the infamous tragedies” at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, Robb Elementary in Uvalde and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, as well as other mass shootings and terrorist attacks, ADL said.
Days after Burrows called for the committee to strengthen online gaming safety protocols, an alleged plot to commit a mass shooting at a Houston synagogue and school was thwarted. Investigators found that one of the alleged perpetrators, a North Carolina teenager, played Roblox games.
“The foiled mass-casualty plot targeting a Houston synagogue serves as a stark reminder of what’s at stake,” Burrows told The Center Square at the time. “Incidents like this reinforce the urgent need for closer scrutiny of the digital environments our children are exposed to on widely used platforms like Roblox. If Roblox were a person, they would already be in prison.”
Fast forward five months and Roblox failed to attend the committee hearing Burrows called for Tuesday.
In response, Burrows said, “When I charged the House State Affairs Committee with examining the dangers online gaming platforms pose to minors, I expected Roblox – the very platform at the center of these concerns – to be a serious partner in our work to strengthen protections for Texas children. Instead, Roblox refused to appear publicly before the committee and answer its questions. That refusal speaks volumes. A company that profits from the attention of millions of young users has a responsibility to confront serious questions about their safety, not evade them.
“Roblox may have chosen to hide from accountability today, but it cannot hide from the consequences of its continued negligence. The Texas House will continue to demand the accountability and action necessary to protect our children.”
Roblox issued a statement saying it “submitted detailed written testimony to the Texas House and Senate State Affairs Committees on our industry-leading safeguards and safety policies, and we will continue to engage constructively with policymakers.” It also said it shares state lawmakers’ “deep commitment to keeping kids safe online.”
Roblox says it’s put in place multiple safety layers, including its “Facial Age Estimation system. It “has processed 338 million age-check records to help Roblox users unlock age-appropriate chat and access age-appropriate games on the platform.” The technology was “tested and certified by third-party labs and has proven to be more accurate than self-declared age;” additional checks were implemented “to move age assurance beyond a point-in-time signal,” to evaluate gamer behavior based on age, it says.
Roblox has also contributed three open-source safety models to the Robust Open Online Safety Tools Model Community, it says.
Last fall, Texas sued Roblox, alleging it’s “flagrantly ignoring state and federal online safety laws while deceiving parents about the dangers of its platform” and “has become a breeding ground for predators. Children in Texas have been repeatedly exposed to sexually explicit content, exploitation, and grooming because Roblox chose to put pixel pedophiles and corporate profit over the safety of Texas children.”
