Roblox’s credibility when it comes to keeping its playerbase of children safe has this week been called into question after the arrest of Arnold Castillo, a child predator.
Last week, Bloomberg shared a report titled Roblox’s Pedophile Problem which documented the case of Arnold “DoctorRofatnik” Castillo, owner of Sonic Eclipse Online. The report suggested Roblox has failed to protect the many children playing the game, with more details then included in a companion video on YouTube.
Roblox has since moved to refute many of the report’s claims, with chief safety officer Matt Kaufman telling Eurogamer—and uploading a July blog on the same topic—that Bloomberg had mischaracterized the ways the company protects its users and had failed to reflect how complex a process online child safety can be.
Alongside the statement, Kaufman pointed to all of the many steps Roblox undertakes when it comes to ensuring the safety of players of all ages.
These discussions were originally sparked after Bloomberg shared the details of the arrest of Arnold Castillo. In 2023, Castillo was caught by police messaging and attempting to meet with a then-12-year-old girl after coming in contact through his Sonic Eclipse Online game. He regularly shared “dark humor” jokes with her and, as Berner has noted, seemed to have ulterior motives beyond those jokes too.
Eventually, Castillo’s messages leaked, exposing his behavior. SEGA was then notified about the Sonic Eclipse game and filed a copyright infringement claim to shut it down.
Bloomberg was among many that have criticized Roblox as a company for not looking into this issue sooner—many fans and publications have suggested if the company had spent more time looking into the known issues surrounding Castillo, the abuse of children could have been prevented. Many have since voiced concerns about the countless popular Roblox experiences that can leave children vulnerable to situations like these.
Roblox does have several different safeguards in place, the developers have since argued, with staff members stating to Bloomberg after the report that they are overwhelmed by the volume of child safety cases they are addressing. This may imply they are doing their best; plenty believe the current efforts in place are not enough.
