Roblox, Discord sued after 15-year-old boy was allegedly groomed online before he died by suicide
Ethan Dallas was targeted by an adult sexual predator on Roblox when he was 12, and later on Discord, according to a lawsuit. He took his own life last year.
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Roblox does not seem to care what they do as long as it makes money. This seems like a huge problem.
Discord on the other hand... I honestly don't care if they go out of business, I really don't like that platform. But how did they have any responsibility in this matter?
It argues that if Roblox and Discord had taken steps to screen users before allowing them on apps, or implemented age and identity verification and other safety measures, “Ethan would have never interacted with this predator, never suffered the harm that he did, and never died by suicide.”
They want these sites to screen every users ID on sign up. I’m sure the courts will love another, “for the children” security bill.
Discord has been taking down free bot systems that people have created to cross check user history and keep them away from minors by banning them from all servers that subscribe to the service. It was entirely opt in and discord obviously doesn't care that people are groomed they are in fact facilitating in and blocking any organized efforts to stop predators.
As they should, honestly. While those bots can be used to track down and identify predators, they have also been used for harassing and doxxing innocent users. There's little to no security oversight with those bots.
So is discord providing a better alternative to monitor ban the creepy predators then, even if these bots are flawed are they not providing necessary security
They're completely opt-in for server admins and use publicly available information to ban users seen logged into "condos" which are sexually explicit and used to groom children. It's a system called Ro-Cleaner (among others) that allow moderators to blanket ban these people.
The fact is that Discord and Roblox aren't doing anything to prevent this activity despite being responsible for facilitating it (condos are published on private Discord servers). When people report these servers or the condos they refuse to do anything meaningful.
I haven't actually seen any evidence of doxxing/harassment. The system does not collect information other than usernames and the activities of those users in Roblox, both of which are publicly available. I would be interested in hearing whatever information you may have on this.
The actual abuse occurred on Discord after the child was groomed on Roblox.
Yeah, my point is that it is just a communication tool. I wouldn't expect them, or want them, to monitor that. If they had been phone calls would they be going after the phone company? If it had been letters would they go after the postal service?
I can't see blaming them. Whereas I can see how you can blame roblocks as it is marketed to children with the pretense that there are safeguards.
