Source: rollingstone.com 8/25/25
The company provoked the ire of its community by banning Schlep, a popular creator who tracks suspected sex predators, even as it faces a flurry of lawsuits claiming it doesn’t protect kids
After a popular YouTuber who entraps suspected sexual predators he contacts through Roblox was banned from the youth-targeted gaming platform this month, the company found itself defending its approach to moderation and user safety. But the furor over harm to minors hasn’t been limited to the game’s community. Now a Congressman, state officials, and families are demanding accountability and bringing legal actions, saying that Roblox has allowed its platform to become a festering hub for horrific child exploitation. Even Chris Hansen, best known as the host of the sting segment To Catch a Predator on Dateline NBC, is looking into stories of grooming and abuse on Roblox. “When I tell you what we’ve learned in terms of what these predators are getting these kids to do, it’s shocking,” Hansen tells Rolling Stone.
Trying to expose and confront potential sex offenders in videos to be posted online — a practice sometimes referred to as “pedophile hunting” — is a booming genre of social media content. Among the prominent personalities in this space is a 22-year-old creator known as “Schlep” (his real first name is Michael, though he does not share his surname for privacy reasons), who says he was groomed by a contracted Roblox developer he met in the game while in his early teens. This individual, he says, exposed him to violent and pornographic content and engaged him in sexual conversations. According to statements from Schlep and his legal team, he eventually attempted suicide as a result, but afterward, when his mother contacted the company, they say they took no action against Schlep’s abuser, only banning this person years later following a complaint from another developer. (The company has not commented on these claims.)
The experience led Schlep to devote himself to outing would-be groomers and child abusers. With the help of …
There’s no push on making the parents involved in informing the children of online dangers and holding them accountable for matters they should be doing. It’s all directed towards the platform doing that job. It’s not the platform’s position to educate the children. Warn them with labels maybe but not educate them so they’re educated as is stated in the article is a goal.
Several things pop into mind here.
First and foremost, I have a hard time believing online predation is as prevalent as most media suggest. Not saying it doesn’t happen, just nowhere near as much as portrayed.
Second, even if Roblox is a predator haven (which I seriously doubt), it makes no sense that parents should be relieved of all responsibility to keep their children away from it. All the screaming and hollering about “protecting children” and yet not one single word about parental responsibility to ensure it. 99% of the so-called problem of online predation would be solved by parents simply using the already available tools to limit and monitor their kids’ online activity.
And finally, I don’t buy this guy’s backstory. He strikes me as a YouTube attention monger riding the TCAP wave. No matter what he actually says, all I hear is “Subscribe to my channel or I might have to get a job.”
“Trying to expose and confront potential …”
And there it is right there.
Key word: “potential”
Potential = pre-offense or pre-crime/offense = entrapment !
Example 1:
Is this no different than giving someone a six-pack and the key to a car?
Doesn’t that make you an accessory and contributing after-the-fact?
Example 2:
Is this no no different than giving a suicidal individual a rope, then pointing to tree limb?
(I believe there was a Netflix doc about that girl that encouraged her boyfriend to [do that] based on a true story.) Spoiler alert: she went to prison.
Sound like nudging, contributory negligence and malicious enticement to me with what all these sex stings and predator hunter groups are participating in.
And the media is not only facilitating and normalizing it – they’re profiting from it!
A freelance journalist, Michael Tracey, has recently been critical of these sting operations (and has criticized the “sex panic” in other ways). He doesn’t always rub everyone the right way, but I’ve been following his work for several years and he’s very careful in his research and strikes me as honest albeit brash. I wasn’t aware that he was critical of some of our nation’s ideas about sex offenses until recently.
In this piece (link) he eviscerates the use of these stings, at least in the contexts in which the ones conducted by law enforcement are done (which is typically adults-only forums / chatrooms). (Note: He mostly publishes on Substack, and you don’t need to pay to read almost all of his work.)
Nuts Chris Hansen wannabes have now taken over social media and gaming platforms. Nothing surprises me anymore and times like this I wish I would forever be stuck in the 1980s or 1990s. Trickle down fear mongering is too engraved in our society and I wish the fear mongering would trickle out of existence