Roblox is one of the platforms where digital grooming has been most documented.
According to experts, cybercriminals seek initial contact, particularly in popular children’s games such as Brookhaven, Adopt Me! or Royale High. They start with seemingly innocent conversations like “do you want to be my friend?” or “I like your avatar.”
Abusers create an account and pretend to be the same age as the victim to build trust; They talk frequently in the game chat or in private messages and offer virtual gifts such as pets, Robux (virtual currency), rare items, in addition to starting to touch on personal topics, asking about school, family or feelings.
It has been documented that they even pretend to share similar problems to create empathy and that they tell the victim not to tell anyone about their friendship. The interaction then moves to other apps with less parental control, such as Discord, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, where they can send photos, request content or make unsupervised video calls.
This stage is where the risk of manipulation and abuse increases. They may ask for intimate photos, promise gifts in return or use threats and in some cases try to extort or meet in person.
A report from the Stern Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University documented, in 2023, how “gaming” chats are used to spread hate speech. In Roblox, for example, it was detected that players recreated Nazi concentration camps.
In July, the Citizen Security Council of Mexico City reported that cybercriminals captured the largest number of victims of the crime of human trafficking, in the form of child pornography, through social networks and online video games.
In the presentation of its Fifth Annual Report against Trafficking, it detailed that of the reports received between January 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025 – which amount to 16,730 -, 62 percent were from people who suffered child sexual exploitation in virtual environments, while the remaining 38 percent had to do with other types of crime, such as prostitution, forced labor, labor exploitation, among others. main.
At the beginning of this year, a complaint became popular on social networks that addressed the case of a 9-year-old girl from Nuevo León who was contacted by a Facebook user who promised her credits for Roblox in exchange for video calls. The victim’s mother discovered the situation one day when she saw the minor on a video call.
The cybercriminal had a seemingly innocent initial contact with the victim and promised him Robux if he made a video call. The minor’s relatives published the Messenger messages she had with her to warn about this modus operandi.
In Chihuahua, on the other hand, the Cyber Police have also documented several cases of “grooming” through Roblox.