VIDEO: Dangers still lurk for young social media users in chatrooms like Roblox

MIKE LORIGAN, REPORTER: It’s a platform millions of kids use every day.

Roblox is a massive online universe with seemingly endless numbers of mini games created by users. 

LEANNE COOPER, AFP ACTING SERGEANT:  Wherever kids are, predators will be. So, kids like playing games. So, predators will go there.

MIKE LORIGAN:  The gaming company claims to have almost 90 million daily users worldwide.

KIRRA PENDERGAST, ONLINE SAFETY EDUCATOR:  That's where it gets scary, is because kids are playing against people that they don't know.

VICTIM’S MOTHER:  I genuinely thought only children went on there. I was very naive. 

MIKE LORIGAN:  In September, a predator contacted this UK mother’s nine-year-old daughter on Roblox. For legal reasons we cannot reveal her identity.

VICTIM’S MOTHER: There was one character on there that looked really trendy, really cool, which then asked her to download an app called Discord, and that's where he sent videos, photos and said really disgusting things.

MIKE LORIGAN:  After luring the nine-year-old outside of the game, the stranger bombarded her with more requests to speak on TikTok.

The messages began with, “You so cute” and then became more disturbing “* starts thrusting and the bed shake” and “ur face is drooling I cn tell.”

Other messages seen by 7.30 were too explicit to broadcast. 

VICTIM’S MOTHER: There was things said in there that she didn't understand, and he told her to Google it, things that she shouldn’t know at nine years old.

MIKE LORIGAN:  The mother reported the player to police who passed it on to Interpol. The man was eventually tracked down to Minnesota in the US, police there have confirmed to 7.30 there is an open and ongoing investigation.

VICTIM’S MOTHER:  I think it should be banned. I really think it should be just gone.

KIRRA PENDERGAST: Who’s seen adult kind of behaviour in Roblox, something that you’ve kind of gone “Oh I don’t want to see that”. 

MIKE LORIGAN:  In the New South Wales Hunter Valley, at Scone Grammar School, almost every Year 3 and 4 student in this class has played Roblox.

KIRRA PENDERGAST: Who's been asked to be someone’s boyfriend or girlfriend, straight up, you’re not in trouble. 

MIKE LORIGAN:  Kirra Pendergast is an online safety educator who has spoken to 800 schools across Australia. She says the majority of her online safety presentations are about Roblox.

KIRRA PENDERGAST: Who’s ever had someone say, follow me on Snapchat, or follow me on TikTok or follow me on Discord or something like that from Roblox that you were playing against? 

This is the most important thing you’re going to hear all day to keep you safe on the game, okay, if you treat Roblox like it’s a giant shopping centre, if someone asks you to be boyfriend or girlfriend, if you see people laying around in their undies, someone offers you money to do something or someone asks you to follow them on to Snapchat or TikTok – you need to immediately tell your trusted adult, do you think you can do that for me? Because that’s what’s going to keep you safe. 

MIKE LORIGAN: Roblox’s net worth is currently more $49 billion Australian dollars.

In October Roblox was described by financial investment firm Hindenburg Research as an “X-rated paedophile hellscape”... which is “exposing children to grooming, pornography, violent content and extremely abusive speech.”

It’s a claim Matt Kaufman, Chief Safety Officer for Roblox, denies.

MATT KAUFMAN, ROBLOX CHIEF SAFETY OFFICER:  I think the characterisations that some of the media say about, you know, the safety on Roblox isn't really reflective of what's happening on the platform.

MIKE LORIGAN:  Games like ‘Survive Diddy’, ‘Escape to Epstein Island’, strip clubs, and other games encouraging violence were flagged with the company and taken down 

But when 7.30 logged on in November games like ‘Public bathroom’, and even ‘Throw Bricks at Homeless People’ were available.

MATT KAUFMAN:  For that type of content, we will remove it, if we're notified by the community, then we'll take action against it, and we'll work with the developers, in some cases, to adjust content to make it appropriate.

MIKE LORIGAN:  There is a tab called privacy and content maturity. 

The platform gives you the option to set your security settings, verify your identity and moderate the content maturity level.

But one of the biggest concerns levelled at Roblox, is the ability for users to message each other directly through games.

MATT KAUFMAN:  Our youngest users can still communicate with other players in a game. That's often part of just playing the game. It's like coordinating gameplay. You have teams and you're doing all kinds of stuff, but outside of the game, our users under 13 are no longer able to have one on one communication with each other.

MIKE LORIGAN:  The Federal Government last week passed new legislation banning access to social media for under 16s in an attempt to mitigate harm to young people. 

But despite Roblox’s chat functions, gaming apps and messaging apps do not fall under the scope of the new laws. 

MATT KAUFMAN:  When we think about social media and Roblox, we think Roblox is just very different. We're watching what's happening in Australia, and we're eager to partner with the government to figure out what makes the most sense for operating in Australia.

MIKE LORIGAN:  Federal Police who tackle the worst crimes on the internet say predatory behaviour often starts with enticements. 

HELEN SCHNEIDER, AFP COMMANDER:  When it comes to online grooming, we see tactics where they use flattery, compliments to encourage children to connect with them, and then we see them offering something in exchange for them to share self-generated child abuse material. That could be things like likes, follows, money or in game currencies.

MIKE LORIGAN:  Over the past six years, reports of online child exploitation in Australia have been on a disturbing trajectory.

In the last 12 months more than 58,000 reports have come to Australian Authorities - a yearly jump of more than 45 per cent.

The majority of those reports have come from the ‘National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’ in the US.

HELEN SCHNEIDER:  That might be online grooming, a report of online grooming, it could be a report that someone is creating and circulating child abuse material, or it might be a report of sextortion, for example. 

We also see reports of self-generated child abuse material that might have no criminal intent, where young people themselves have created it.

MIKE LORIGAN:  These reports are sent straight here to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) run by the AFP.

7.30 has been given a rare glimpse inside. 

Leanne, can you tell us, where are we right now? 

LEANNE COOPER:  Right now we're standing in the ACCCE. This is behind me is the child protection triage unit, the CPTU.

It's kind of like the front door to the ACCCE. They receive all of, or a majority of the reports that the ACCCE and the AFP receives.

MIKE LORIGAN:  Never before has this level of access been granted inside the triage unit.

The investigative team here are the first to see the mountain of explicit material involving Australians. 

Describing the work as ‘confronting’, is an understatement.

LEANNE COOPER: They've got to view some horrific, abhorrent material. It takes a certain personality. It's an opt in area. Not everyone can do it, and the AFP acknowledges that not everyone can do it.

MIKE LORIGAN:  From here these reports are sent out to state and territory police.

Time is of the essence. 

After a report came through in October, the unit identified a perpetrator and victim in regional New South Wales within hours.

HELEN SCHNEIDER:  We were able to forward that out to our colleagues, who were able to the following day arrest the offender and remove that child from harm.

MIKE LORIGAN:  Within 24 hours, what message does that say to an online predator?

HELEN SCHNEIDER:  That we're coming for you.

MIKE LORIGAN:  The message to parents is to join your children’s online world to keep them safe.

LEANNE COOPER:  Play the game with them. Know how it works. Ask your kid, what's this function, and what does this do? And then you'll see where an offender could get in contact with your child.