Florida AG Announces 1,400 Predator Arrests: What Roblox Parents Need to Know

On March 9, 2026, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that his office has made over 1,400 child predator arrests since taking office in February 2025 — and named Roblox as one of the primary platforms predators are using to target children.

The announcement, made in Orlando, highlighted two specific predator arrests tied to Roblox. In one case, a predator used Roblox to target sisters. The news has been covered by CBS, FOX 35, AOL, and Newsmax.

If you have a child who plays Roblox, here is what you need to understand — and what you can do today.

Why Roblox Is a Target

Roblox has over 88 million daily active users, and the majority are under 13. That scale, combined with in-game chat and a friend request system that is open by default, creates an environment that predators actively exploit.

The pattern is consistent across cases: a stranger sends a friend request, starts chatting in-game, earns trust by gifting Robux or offering game help, and then attempts to move the conversation off-platform — to Discord, Snapchat, or direct messaging.

Roblox has invested in moderation and content filtering, but the volume of interactions happening on the platform every second makes real-time monitoring impossible. The Florida AG's announcement is a reminder that these risks are not theoretical — they are resulting in real arrests, involving real children.

What the Default Settings Get Wrong

Most parents assume Roblox is "locked down for kids" by default. It is not. Out of the box, a new Roblox account can:

• Receive friend requests from anyone
• Chat with anyone in games
• Be followed into servers by strangers
• Receive direct messages from people who are not friends

Roblox has parental control settings that restrict all of this — but parents have to actively turn them on, and most don't know they exist.

What to Do Right Now

If your child has a Roblox account, take 10 minutes today to go through these settings. Log into your child's account, go to Settings > Privacy, and make the following changes:

• Who can send me friend requests: Change from "Everyone" to "Friends of Friends" or "No One"
• Who can chat with me in the app: Change to "Friends"
• Who can chat with me in experiences: Change to "Friends"
• Who can follow me into experiences: Change to "No One"
• Who can message me: Change to "Friends"
• Account PIN: Set a PIN under Settings > Security so your child cannot change these settings themselves

For children under 13, also make sure the account is marked with their correct birth year. Roblox applies stricter content filtering to accounts registered as under 13, and limits certain types of chat.

Check the friends list

Go to your child's profile and look at their friends list. Do you recognize everyone there? If you see usernames you don't know, ask your child who they are. Any friend they cannot identify as someone they know in real life should be removed.

Talk to your child about the off-platform ask

The most important conversation you can have is about what happens when someone online asks to move the conversation somewhere else. Teach your child that any online-only friend asking for their Snapchat, Discord, phone number, or real name is a red flag — regardless of how long they have been talking.

This is not about scaring them. It is about giving them the instinct to pause and tell you.

If Something Has Already Happened

If your child has been in contact with someone on Roblox who concerned them, or if you have discovered something alarming in their messages or friend list, do not delete anything. Screenshots and account information can be critical for law enforcement.

Report the account in Roblox using the flag icon next to any username or message. Then report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTipline (cybertipline.org) or contact your local FBI field office. You can also call the National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453.

Ongoing Monitoring Matters

Setting up privacy controls is a one-time fix. But your child's friends list, the games they are playing, and the people they are talking to change constantly. Checking in periodically — not obsessively, but regularly — is what actually keeps kids safe over time.

A good cadence for most families: a quick look at the friends list once a week, a conversation about online interactions once a month, and privacy settings reviewed whenever Roblox does a major update.

The Bottom Line

The Florida AG's announcement is alarming but not surprising to anyone who has been paying attention to Roblox safety. The platform is enormous, the users are young, and the default settings are not built with safety as the priority.

That does not mean your child cannot use Roblox. It means they need a parent who is involved — who knows their friends list, who has set the right privacy controls, and who has had the conversation about strangers online.

That parent can be you. Today is a good day to start.