Florida Family Goes After Roblox
Roblox, a trending online gaming platform, is facing another lawsuit after a Florida family states that a 19-year-old man sexually abused their young daughter.
In 2022, Anthony Borgesano was questioned by investigators in Highlands County, Florida, and admitted to engaging in sexual activity with an 11-year-old girl. “I had, um, how do I explain this — sexual relations with someone obviously younger,” Borgesano told detectives. He stated that he met the young girl through a Roblox game.
After pleading no contest to lewd molestation of a child and additional charges, Borgesano was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Due to privacy concerns, the girl’s family is not speaking publicly. Their attorney, Stan Gipe, acknowledges her case as “one of many” involving children who were abused after being contacted through Roblox.
In their lawsuit, the family accuses Roblox of wrongfully advertising itself as a safe “digital playground” and describes it instead as a virtual platform that “enables pedophiles to hunt, groom, and sexually exploit children.”
The lawsuit also identifies multiple inappropriate games disguised as entertaining adventures. “They’ve got ‘Escape from Epstein Island,’ right? These are not games you want your kids playing,” Gipe said.
Gipe’s firm has filed an additional lawsuit on behalf of a Brevard County survivor who was 9 years old when she experienced abuse on the platform. Her family states that she was manipulated and “persuaded to send sexually explicit images of herself in exchange for Robux, Roblox’s virtual currency.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier recently announced that as a result of child safety concerns, his office has issued criminal subpoenas to Roblox. “Companies like Roblox have become breeding grounds for predators to get to and have access to our kids,” Uthmeier said in a public statement.
Authors: Andy Goldwasser and Alexis Kabat
