Key Facts

Who Is Roblox User Schlep?

Schlep is a Roblox gamer and a YouTuber who has more than 790,000 subscribers. Many of his most popular videos, on which he has garnered millions of views, depict him pursuing child predators on the gaming platform. His most popular video, titled “Roblox Predator Gets Arrested!” depicts him, posing as a young user, luring a man he met on Roblox to meet in real life, where he confronts the user with police. Schlep has claimed on X he has helped authorities arrest six Roblox users who appeared to be child predators. Over the weekend, Schlep posted what he says is a cease-and-desist notice from Roblox, notifying him his accounts are suspended because of actions including “engaging in simulated child endangerment conversations,” “sharing or soliciting personally identifiable information” and “directing users to move conversations off platform,” all of which Roblox says violates its policies. Schlep slammed Roblox’s Wednesday statement in a thread on X, calling it “outrageous” to compare actions taken by “vigilante” users to child predators. Schlep’s ban sparked anger from his supporters online, and on Wednesday night, he shared an image on X of an in-game protest in which Roblox users gathered and said: “Free Schlep.”

Key Background

Roblox’s moderation policies have long faced criticism, particularly because of its large base of young users. Roblox said in an earnings report in July it had 111.8 million daily active users in the second quarter of 2025, 36% of whom were users under 13. In July 2024, a Bloomberg investigation found police in the United States had arrested at least two dozen users accused of exploiting minors through Roblox since 2018, seven of which were in the past 13 months. The Bloomberg report cited anonymous conversations with nearly two dozen employees, including one moderator who said her team receives hundreds of reports concerning child safety every day, “far too many for her team to clear.” A Roblox spokesperson disputed these issues to Bloomberg, stating it has a “robust pipeline” of safety features and that “tens of millions of people of all ages have a safe and positive experience on Roblox every single day.” Last week, Roblox began rolling out an AI-powered moderation tool to identify language in user chats that could be indicators of child exploitation.

Tangent

As Roblox’s vigilante-banning controversy has unfolded, the company has faced multiple lawsuits over alleged child predators on the gaming platform. On Aug. 4, a California family sued Roblox for negligence, alleging their 10-year-old daughter was kidnapped by a 27-year-old man she met through the game. Police found her more than 250 miles away from her home, the lawsuit states, after the alleged predator directed her to share her address with him on Discord, a messaging platform popular with gamers. The lawsuit says Roblox and Discord are “directly responsible” for the kidnapping, alleging the victim would not have been kidnapped if they had “implemented even the most basic system of screening or age and identity verification, as well as other commonsense safety measures.” Following the lawsuit, a Roblox spokesperson told CBS News: “We dedicate substantial resources… to help detect and prevent inappropriate content and behavior, including attempts to direct users off platform, where safety standards and moderation may be less stringent than ours.” A Texas man who says he was “groomed, extorted, and sexually abused by a man in his late thirties” when he was 11 years old sued Roblox in federal court Wednesday, accusing it of negligence.

Further Reading

Roblox’s Pedophile Problem (Bloomberg)

Roblox rolls out open-source AI system to protect kids from predators in chats (ABC News)