Photo Credit: Oberon Copeland
Senators file an amicus brief opposing Roblox’s and Discord’s appeal, arguing that the Ending Forced Arbitration Act (EFAA) prevents forced arbitration of a sexual abuse survivor.
On Friday, three U.S. Democratic senators filed an amicus brief condemning both gaming platform Roblox and chat platform Discord for their appeal for private arbitration, arguing that the alleged victims “deserve their day in court” as the matter relates to child safety.
Specifically, the amicus brief was filed in a case involving a 13-year-old boy who reportedly met a predator on Roblox and was “groomed, coerced, and blackmailed” into sending lewd materials over Discord. This case is only one of the hundreds of similar lawsuits filed against both companies.
In their brief, filed in California’s First Appellate District, Senators Dick Durbin (IL), Richard Blumenthal (CT), and Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) established that the Ending Forced Arbitration Act (EFAA) prevents forced arbitration in cases of sexual abuse.
The Senators argued that the EFAA exists precisely to cover cases involving any sexual assault or sexual harassment dispute and that this case “fits squarely within the Act’s scope.” Further, they urge the court to prevent Roblox and Discord from “forcing the Plaintiff into arbitration” because survivors of sexual assault “deserve their day in court.”
According to Bloomberg, Roblox and Discord also plan to file similar motions to compel arbitration on September 22 across more than 160 similar lawsuits in federal multidistrict litigation.
“Instead of hiding behind the veil of arbitration, Roblox and Discord can be held accountable for their misconduct: misleading parents into thinking their platforms are safe and failing to protect children from sexual abuse,” the brief reads. “Such a requirement would contradict the very concern animating the EFAA in the first place: Companies enforce arbitration to silence and deny justice to survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment.”
Arbitration enables lawsuits to be settled privately, which means Roblox or Discord could compel survivors to settle without the public knowing the outcomes of those lawsuits. Enacted by Congress in 2022, the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act blocks companies facing sexual abuse lawsuits from entering private arbitration.
Roblox says it has made numerous changes to its platform to address child safety concerns, including spending $12 million adding facial recognition and age-verification systems. For years, child safety concerns have plagued the platform, and Roblox’s efforts to curb it have mostly just drawn further criticism.
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