Roblox Senate Investigation: What Senators Want by August 31

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism has opened an investigation into child safety on Roblox, giving the company until August 31, 2026 to produce the documents and information listed in an attached request. The inquiry is led by Subcommittee Chairman Josh Hawley and Ranking Member Richard J. Durbin.

It is important to be precise about what has happened. This is a congressional investigation initiated through a letter to Roblox CEO David Baszucki, not a finding that Roblox has broken the law. The letter directs the company to preserve records related to child safety, child abuse, bullying and child financial exploitation. It also requests documents and answers from the company. The letter does not describe the request as a subpoena. The full Hawley-Durbin letter and annex explain the scope of the investigation.

The central question is broader than whether Roblox has published safety policies. Senators are seeking information about how the platform’s safety systems operate alongside the ways younger users play, communicate and spend Robux.

What the Roblox investigation is asking for

The annex to the senators’ letter requests records and data covering 2018 through 2025. Several requests place commercial and behavioral information about younger users alongside data about Roblox’s safety operations. They include:

• gross and net revenue, as well as Robux bookings, broken down by age bracket;
• average time spent on the platform by users in different age groups;
• the percentage of minor accounts using non-default parental oversight;
• annual spending on trust and safety;
• reports Roblox received involving suspected child sexual exploitation, predation, abuse and bullying, including information about human review and bans; and
• information about banned users returning to the platform and the systems used to detect or prevent evasion.

By requesting these figures together, the subcommittee is seeking evidence that could help it assess not only which controls Roblox offers, but also how widely they are used and how the company applies them. The document requests do not themselves provide the answers.

Developer-created chat is a key point of scrutiny

One of the most specific parts of the request concerns communication tools created by developers. The senators ask why Roblox’s newer age-verification settings do not apply to developer-created chat functions. They also seek documents explaining differences in moderation, filtering and other safety controls between Roblox-native communications and developer-created tools.

The distinction matters to the investigation because the annex treats platform-native and developer-created communications as potentially different safety environments. The letter does not explain how Roblox defines developer-created chat, identify all affected features or establish that the safeguards differ in practice. Those are questions the senators have asked Roblox to address, not conclusions already reached by the investigation.

How Roblox’s stated protections fit into the inquiry

Roblox had announced changes to its safety framework before the investigation. In May, the company said it was introducing age-checked account tiers and that Roblox Kids accounts for children ages 5–8 would have chat disabled by default. It also said linked parents could manage chat, game access, spending and screen time, while experiences available to younger users would face expanded review requirements. Roblox described those measures in its May family-safety update.

Those stated protections are directly relevant to the Senate request, but they do not resolve its questions. The subcommittee is asking for information about parental-oversight adoption, age verification, chat controls, enforcement and safety spending. A public description of a control is different from evidence about its coverage, use or effectiveness.

Roblox Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said in a statement provided to PC Gamer: “Roblox is built on the foundation of safety. We do not compromise on that commitment. We look forward to sharing the facts about how we work to protect children on the platform.” No corresponding response to the investigation was located in Roblox’s newsroom during the research for this article.

What the NCMEC reporting figure means—and what it does not

The senators’ letter says Roblox submitted 65,381 reports of suspected child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2025, more than double the figure cited for 2024. That description and the qualifier “suspected” come from the letter.

The number should not be treated as a count of confirmed offenses, confirmed perpetrators or confirmed incidents on Roblox. It concerns reports of suspected exploitation submitted to NCMEC. The investigation seeks additional detail about Roblox’s reporting, review and enforcement processes.

Earlier in 2026, Roblox was one of eight companies questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee about CyberTipline reporting. In June, the committee said Roblox had identified planned improvements including additional report annotations; more email, phone and IP-port data; a revised reporting threshold; clearer victim identification; and revised evidence formatting. That earlier oversight focused on reporting practices. The Hawley-Durbin investigation is broader, extending to revenue by age, parental oversight, communications and moderation.

What happens after the August 31 deadline?

Roblox has been asked to produce the requested material by August 31. The letter does not say whether the subcommittee will hold a hearing, seek testimony, issue a subpoena or take another formal step after reviewing the company’s response. It also does not indicate whether Roblox will seek more time, contest any request or publish its response.

The investigation does not establish the senators’ allegations as proven. Roblox previously disclosed in its 2025 annual report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it faces federal and state cases alleging its platform design, moderation systems and safety safeguards were insufficient to protect minors from predatory behavior and sexual exploitation. Those remain allegations in legal proceedings, not adjudicated findings.

“Let us be clear: children on your platform are hurting. Congress will not look the other way.”

That closing line from Hawley and Durbin’s letter states the subcommittee’s position. The next substantive development will be Roblox’s response to the requests, particularly any information addressing the relationship between platform-level age and parental controls and communication systems created within individual experiences.