Many high schooler’s may know the game Roblox, and would label it a childhood classic. It was certainly a fun part of my childhood with the vast amount of games you can find and interesting avatars you can dress up as. Recently, however, Roblox has fallen under some controversy due to the lack of safety for children on the app. The largest issue is the many child predators that have gone under or even passed Roblox’s radar. Some players have taken it upon themselves to hunt these child predators in the game, with many using it for content to show that these people are some “rare phenomenon” that seldomly happens and is a recurring matter. These issues have come to a head because of a user named “Schlep” who has come under scrutiny by the Roblox staff for this which they consider “vigilante work,” yet all of the videos of his work have included the police authorities in the process of exposing these predators.
When I watched Schlep’s videos that were said to “incriminate” him according to Roblox, it appeared that he only falsified his age to people who were, in fact, arrested predators, contrary to Roblox’s claims. In one specific video, Schlep talks about how, because of the controversy, he has been getting isolated in collaborations and has had friends get threatened for being associated with Schlep. The reason Schlep began this endeavor is because he himself was a victim to these disgusting people, and has since committed himself to getting Roblox predators incarcerated. His process of catching these criminals is not as bad as Roblox implies it to be, and even the police have thanked him. Schlep talks about the methods that predators use on their victims, such as love bombing, and informs kids on what to look out for. The true problem, I believe, is the issue that comes from his fans and others attempting to do similar predator hunts but without the amount of preparation and support from the proper authorities that Schelp had when he did his own hunts, this can cause repercussions like second time offenses if the predators they tried to “catch” are not properly dealt with.
The response given by Roblox equates the predator hunters, even those who include the authorities in their work like Schlep, to the predators they have been pursuing, their basis on this comparison being their method of how the vigilantes contact them. These vigilantes have used fake identities, such as a fake Roblox account, to lure people into believing they are children.. Not many of these adults have been banned or removed from Roblox because their behavior began off-platform even though their actions were continued on the Roblox platform. One of Schlep’s videos even shows that Roblox would rather tell the victim to block or disable text channels rather than ban the pedophile, but Roblox has flipped their policy in order to ban Schlep. One of the largest reasons people are upset is the fact that the moderation team has begun banning people for creating items or clothing on the website supporting Schlep. Some players have shown support for Schlep outside of Roblox with petitions against the CEO in an effort to represent the masses of people that want Schlep un-banned.
The ruthless treatment of these vigilantes compared to how lax the moderation is with predators shows that children are not what they prioritize when it comes to general safety. More importantly, it shows online groomers that their actions will be tolerated, and if anything, will encourage them to continue harming kids. The only issue with these predator-hunters are those that don’t work with police, because how else will their actions be taken accountable, and their victims gain justice? Players and parents of players should be warned about the attempted hiding of the pedophillic actions that have been allowed on the platform, and stay safe on the internet by making sure to never share personal information to an online “friend” and to let your parent or guardian know if you have any worries about an online companion.
