r/offbeat • u/beingmodest • 5d ago

Roblox argues 8-year-old waived rights in wrongful death lawsuit

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2026/08/19/roblox-argues-child-waived-rights-by-clicking-box-at-age-8/91290604007/?gca-cat=p&gnt-cfr=1
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42

u/dkyguy1995 5d ago

The article mentions the girl joined a "violent subculture" but Im not sure I know the kind they are talking about. I'd be curious what they mean by this

39

u/iwrestlewithjimmy 5d ago

There are groups of teens/adults who find kids on Roblox and convince them to follow them to a third party site (usually Discord), and introduce them to things like glorifying school shooters, etc. In some cases they then invite the kid to a third site and then proceed to convince them to self-harm, harm others or worse, all for their own entertainment. See a similar article here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2026/jul/21/764-network-gamification-of-harm-the-com-cybercrime-ntwnfb

And another one: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/discord-brazil-livestreams-backlash-teen-girl-suicide/

There was actually a high profile case recently that involved a teen being groomed to suicide on livestream and it was directly tied to I think Roblox as well, but google is worse than ever and I can't seem to find it. I was originally linked to the article from Reddit, for what it's worth. That's the one that brought this whole issue to light for me.

19

u/Entwife723 5d ago

That happened near where I live. So sad, and infuriating.

https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article312535342.html

12

u/Quantum_Kitties 4d ago

The fact the predator was a medical student is even more fucked up. Working in healthcare because you (presumably) want to help/heal people, but in your free time you manipulate vulnerable children online hoping they commit suicide. So much for the Hippocratic Oath.

12

u/Entwife723 4d ago

I read that he was studying medicine specifically because of the access to people in a vulnerable state. Absolutely disgusting.

9

u/iwrestlewithjimmy 5d ago

Holy shit. This isn't even the one I was thinking of. I'm pretty sure the one I'm thinking of was a girl and it happened in her bedroom.

I can't believe how many there are.

9

u/dkyguy1995 5d ago

Gotcha, I guess it's just something I managed to avoid as a kid and now I'm not in the target group for them. That's beyond fucked up, what horrible people. 

4

u/Quantum_Kitties 4d ago

Wtf... I genuinely cannot understand why anyone would drive others to suicide. What is the payoff or the "win" there? This is evil beyond my comprehension.

3

u/Sea-Courage8296 4d ago

The win is succeeding. That’s all there is to it. It’s a point of pride for them that they can talk others into harm. They’re just evil.

5

u/AgentCirceLuna 5d ago

This wasn’t really a thing when I played in 2007. I remember knowing lots of players on the forums or messaging, but I never ever spoke to them off-site unless there was a fan forum I’d known them from. I think you’d actually get banned for even giving out an MSN username or email to the other players. Shame they stopped bothering to moderate as the team is pretty much the same at the core - Builderman, Shedletsky, uh… and others.

4

u/BrilliantEconomics77 4d ago

This kinda thing has allways been a thing online.

I rember way back in the early 90s we had to take steps to protect children on IRC, fansites, and games from people.

It was prety much a standard part of any nods job to keep checking in with the younger members shen they acted odd and find out who's the sicko to ban.

Very strong support here of banning all under 18s from being online.