Roblox looks to dodge Iowa suit over danger to children

DES MOINES, Iowa (CN) — Online gaming platform Roblox asked an Iowa state judge on Friday to dismiss the state’s suit claiming the company knowingly exploits children with its gaming platform that puts them at risk of pornographers and adult child predators.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird filed suit against Roblox in December 2025 under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its residents, claiming “Roblox is the perfect environment for child predators, pornographers, scammers, fraudsters, online sex rings and inappropriate content.”

At Polk County District Court in Des Moines, the San Mateo, California-based company argued for summary judgment, saying that as a carrier of third-party content it is not liable for harms from that content under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act.

Stephen Cobb of Foley & Lardner in Washington, D.C., representing Roblox, told Polk County Judge Celene Gogerty other courts have been “incredibly clear” and “consistent” that online platforms such as Roblox are protected by Section 230 from liability for third-party content.

In its brief in support of dismissing Iowa’s case, Roblox describes its platform as an interactive online gaming platform on which users can create and play various online games, called “experiences,” most of which are not created by Roblox but by third-party developers or users who upload their content to the platform.

“This theory of liability falls within the heartland of Section 230, which grants online service providers immunity from claims that seek to hold them liable for failing to monitor, filter, block, modify, edit, or remove content provided by third parties,” Roblox argues in its brief.

And it cited a 2013 Iowa Supreme Court decision that said Section 230 “insulates a provider of an interactive computer service from … liability for ‘information provided by another information content provider.’”

Roblox also argues that Iowa’s claim under the state’s Consumer Fraud Act fails because Roblox would have to be guilty of an unfair practice, fraud, false pretense in connection with the sale of merchandise, which it says is not the case because the Roblox platform does not meet the statute’s definition of merchandise and its practices are not carried out in connection with the sale of the platform.

Roblox points out that its gaming platform is free, and it disputes the state’s argument that Roblox gift cards, called Robux, and toys sold at brick-and-mortar stores to lure minors onto the platform support a claim under the Consumer Fraud Act because those sales do not amount to an “unfair practice” or “deception.”

Gogerty asked whether Roblox is in fact free when the company collects users’ data.

Meghan Stoppel, of Foley & Lardner and representing Roblox, said the state itself admits the Roblox platform is free, and she said the game is free under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act even when users provide their data.

And she said Robux cards are purchased by adults as gifts to Roblux users.

“This is a platform used by children,” she said. “They are not buying Robux.”

Kellen Dwyer, representing Iowa, said the state’s consumer fraud suit is based on first-party statements by Roblox in parental warnings and its content moderation, which it says exposes the company to liability that is not protected by Section 230. Iowa argues those statements don’t go far enough and the company fraudulently claims otherwise.

Dwyer, of Holtzman Vogel in Washington, D.C., said the idea that Roblox is protected in this case by the federal statute is a “breathtaking proposition. It is not the law.”

He said a defendant such as Roblox, could be liable for harms caused by third parties on its site — if Section 230 did not apply. He added that the argument has been has been “explicitly rejected” by federal appeals courts.

The state’s consumer fraud claim rests on the theory that Roblox should be held liable for failing to moderate third-party content published on its platform, thereby making Roblox’s statements regarding its content moderation practices both deceptive and unfair under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act.

Roblox operates one of the most popular games in the nation with more than 80 million daily users, including Iowans, most of whom are children under the age of 18 – some as young as age 4, Bird said in the complaint. She says Roblox markets itself as the “#1 gaming site for kids and teens” and that as many as two-thirds of U.S. children ages 9 to 12 have Roblox accounts.

Gogerty said she would take the case under advisement and rule later.

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