Bodycam: Alleged Predator 'Hunted' Kids on Roblox 4-5 Times a Day

I find there's probable cause to believe. that the following laws have been. violated. Possession of child. pornography. >> Is there an epidemic of sexual predators. using the game Roblox to prey on. children? That's the accusation in. lawsuits that are pouring in from all. across the country. Some on behalf of. alleged victims who were as young as 8. years old when they say they were. exploited through the game. And these. latest complaints come as police are. busting more and more apparent sexual. predators who they say contacted their. victims inside Roblox. We're taking a.

look at one of those recent arrests, the. disgusting details revealed in an. interview with police and the. connections between ongoing cases and. these new lawsuits. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse. Weber. Even if you're not a gamer, you have. likely heard of Roblox, right? The game. platform that was created in 2004. It. was launched publicly in 2006, but it. really took off during the CO 19. pandemic. That's when kids and teens,

they were stuck at home. They took to. the internet to communicate. In 2020, the company told The Verge that more. than half of Americans under the age of. 16 were playing games created by. themselves or others on Roblox. The. platform hosts millions and millions of. users that you can interact with. anytime, but those interactions aren't. always positive. Alleged victims and. their families have come forward from. all over the country accusing Roblox of. fostering an environment that allowed.

child sexual exploitation to flourish. According to one of the federal lawsuits. that's at stake here, Roblox is easily. accessible, including to children as. young as 6 years old. It is free to. download and play and is available on. gaming consoles, computers, tablets, and. cellular devices. An account can easily. be set up by a child in a matter of. minutes without a parent. This is an. entire virtual world where users can. create an avatar that they can use to. participate in millions of different. games and groups referred to as.

experiences. And with much of its. branding geared toward children and. teens, it's easy to see how potential. predators would kind of have a sea of. potential victims to choose from, right? And Roblox is now at the center of a. Florida child sexual abuse case with. some of the most disturbing details that. we have ever heard. Now, I'm not going. to get into all this alone. I want to. bring on Melba Pearson back onto. Sidebar. Always love seeing Melba, civil. rights attorney, criminal law attorney, former prosecutor, host of resident.

legal diva on YouTube. Hope everybody. can check it out. So Melba, there have. been concerns about online predators. since the birth of the internet. These. lawsuits though, they really push. roadblocks directly into the spotlight, right? I mean, what are you taking away. from them? >> Well, always good to see you and be on. with you, Jesse. And one of the key. things is about how we're navigating. this, you know, new kind of brave new. world with, you know, we saw recently uh.

a lawsuit against chat GPT, Open AI in. terms of guiding a young person to unal. alive themselves. So, you know, there's. this whole debate about how responsible. social media platforms and these other. kind of gaming platforms should be in. terms of criminal activity. how should. they be cracking down and how does that. intersect with your first amendment. right in terms of privacy in terms of. being able to talk and interact with. people however you see fit. So there's a.

very fine line but again these. corporations have to figure out how to. keep people on their platform safe. That. is a non-negotiable. >> So let's talk about this. I want to go. back to April of this year and it's very. early in the morning. It's just before. first light and Marian County. investigators have a search warrant to. present to 17-year-old Christian. Scribbin. Now, Scribbon, his father, and. his brother, they were woken up. They. were brought outside. They were all. handcuffed, and a deputy read the entire. search warrant to them, giving them an. idea of what all these law enforcement.

officers were doing in the apartment. complex's parking lot. Based upon the. facts set forth in the affidavit, I find. there is probable cause to believe that. at the below described location to be. searched, there will be found an. instrumentality or means by which a. felony has been committed or evidence. relevant to providing said felony has. been committed to it child pornography. in physical or digital form. The search. warrant authorizes the search of the. above location and includes the. dwellings/residents. all out buildings and vehicles located.

on the cartilage and any person who is. known or reasonably resembling believed. to be engaged in or connected with the. ille illegal activity that is the. subject of the search warrant. Personal. computer hardware i.e. person computers, laptops, notebooks, mobile electronic devices, i.e. tablets, smartphones, e-readers, gaming devices, game consoles, i.e. PlayStation, Xbox, etc. >> Yeah. So, that search warrant tells us a. lot about this alleged crime. And the.

probable cause affidavit that was filed. with the court by a Marane County. detective provides more information. And. Melba, I want to break down the. different revelations in this with you. So, quote, "In February of 2025, numerous incidents were reported on the. Roblox application of a suspect going by. Lost Shadow and Christian directing. children to molest their younger. siblings in a vile manner and produce. child sexual abuse material." So, Melba, right off the bat, heinous allegations.

And not only is Scribbin accused of. having a, you know, this sick interest. in minors, but he allegedly convinced. those minors to inflict abuse on their. own brothers and sisters. First of all, I was just horrified when I read these. allegations. And again, it really comes. back to the importance of the parents. understanding where their kids are. spending their time. Now, Jesse, not to. date myself, back in the day, I remember. the commercial like, "It's 8:00 p.m. Do. you know where your children are?".

Right? And that was in terms of do you. physically know where your kids are? Are. they playing in the street? Whatever the. case may be. Now in 2025, it's not about. physically where your child is. It's. where they are on in cyerspace, where. they are on the internet, and who are. they interacting with. And it's very. important for parents, and of course, I'm not blaming the parents here. That's. not at all what's happening, but I just. want to use this as a teaching moment. that parents should have parental. controls on the various applications.

that their kids are using. They should. be aware of what applications their kids. are using, what games they're playing. They should be warning their their kids. in terms of listen, if anyone's telling. you to take your clothes off, to touch. yourself, to touch someone else, that's. not okay. Tell me, tell a teacher, tell. a counselor. really empower kids to know. that listen, this this behavior is not. okay and empower them to be able to push. back. Luckily, these kids have come up. and and and and told their parents. because of course, we wouldn't be here.

if they hadn't done that. But sadly, these kids were victimized in the. process. So, I really want to use this. as a teaching moment for parents and. aunties, whoever, uncles to be vigilant. in terms of where your kids are in. cyerspace. By the way, talking video. like this, let me tell you, we here at. Sidebar, we produce so many video clips. a day. And we use a platform called. OpusClip that may be very interesting to. you because it's an all-in-one AI editor. that makes it easier and faster to cut, create, and upload videos across all.

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Go to opus.pro/sidebar. to start creating your own videos today. Now, once Scribbin had been read his. rights, he quickly confirmed a lot of. the information that deputies needed to. connect him to these cyber tips. So, Post Miranda, quote, I spoke with. suspect Christian Scribbin. He provided. me the phone number and email address. that were his. They matched the. information provided by Roblox on the. suspect account. He also admitted to his. old Roblox account being shut down. around the time that Roblox reported him. to the National Center for Missing and.

Exploited Children. He has since created. a new account. Now, it's a couple of. important things to note here, Melba. So, first, that Roblox apparently. reported Scribbin, right, to the. National Center for Missing and. Exploited Children, shut down his. account. Second, that he was able to. turn around and just create a new one. >> Good. Good on Roblox in terms of being. proactive. The minute they saw there was. a problem, they shut down the account. They reported him to law enforcement. appropriately. But again, that's on. Roblox to figure out their algorithms or.

whatever is needed, their coding, whatever to be able to prevent someone. who has been banned from the platform. from coming back. Of course, again, it. becomes difficult in terms of you just. get another email address or you use a a. virtual phone number or something like. that to be able to get a new account on. the platform. But again, that's going to. be on the Roblox engineers to figure out. how they can track when someone's been. blocked, whether it's by their IP. address, whatever. Figure out a way to.

ensure because again, this is not my. area of expertise, but the the smart. folks at Roblox can figure out how to. make sure that once someone is banned, they're banned for life, and they can't. just come back with a different screen. name, a different handle, or a different. email address. And and you think about. the digital evidence being, you know, quite compelling. The deputies who were. at this apartment complex, you know, they spoke with Scribbin's father and. apparently he acknowledged that it could.

be his son who was involved in this sort. of activity. Now, if that's true, Melba, how critical is it to have someone. offering up potentially corroborating. information, especially someone who is. so close to the accused? >> That that would be huge. But my question. would be, is he thinking it's his son. based on just kind of like he's been. acting strangely lately or something. like that? Or does he know that his son. has always had a prediliction towards. children? And if he's known that, now.

we're looking at him in terms of. liability. Because if you know your. child has been engaging in criminal. activity, if you know your child has. been abusing people and you just kind of. turn a blind eye to it, we we've we saw. in the Crumbly case how the parents got. pulled in in terms of their child ended. up bringing a gun to school and horrible. things ended up happening, but again, they knew that their child had issues. and they did not take steps to ensure.

the safety of everyone else. And so this. same scenario could play out with his. father if he had some inkling that his. son was was was molesting people. If he. just thought his son was acting. strangely and now based on what law. enforcement is telling him, he's putting. two and two together. That's a different. scenario altogether. And of course that. would be incredibly beneficial for the. prosecution when they're putting their. case together. And during an interview. with the detective, Scribbin himself. reportedly revealed sickening details.

about his daily habit of searching out. children, some of them as young as just. 8 years old. Quote, "He admitted to. proactively searching for children. nearly every day on the Roblox. application. He would direct them to. produce child sexual abuse material.". Christian described a compulsion to. exploit children online so that he could. obtain sexual gratification from the. child sexual abuse material they. produced at his direction. He tried. several times to stop but was unable to. He described the number of children he.

would do this with as being. approximately four to five a day every. day for the past year. So Melba, the. sheer number of possible victims out. there is hard to even imagine. We're talking thousands thousands of. children that have been traumatized that. now are going to have to go to therapy. to be able to unpack the horrors of what. they dealt with. And that's something. that's going to be popping up in their. psyche over the course of the next few.

decades. So I think a lot of steps are. going to have to be t taken to make sure. these kids are okay and that these kids. don't end up having issues moving. forward as a result of the trauma that. they suffered. You know, and on the the. same token, again, I mean, this is a. sickness. This this is truly an illness. This, you know, we could ask questions. as to whether or not the defendant was a. survivor of abuse himself. You know, how. how did this happen? And we're going to. keep asking those questions because it's.

hard for our minds to even fathom that. someone would do this, especially at. such a young age. But again, this is the. opportunity for not only law enforcement. to intervene, but the criminal justice. system and to make sure that he does not. harm another child again. >> Now, the question is, how was he able to. do this? Right? So, according to the. probable cause statement, Scribbin would. reportedly start speaking with a minor. on Roblox, lying about his own age. That's the allegation, saying that he.

was one or two years younger and then. quickly moved the conversation to text. messages. And get this quote, "A. preliminary search of Christian's phone. revealed that he was speaking with a. female over text just hours before the. search warrant was executed. He. continuously directed her to take. pictures of herself, which escalated in. nature as the conversation went on. Though none of the media sent meets the. statutory criteria of child pornography, the escalating and grooming nature of. the conversation further corroborates. the reported data from Roblox as well as.

Christian's own admissions. He later. admitted the girl to be 13 to 14 years. old and he stated he was not going to. continue with her because he quote lost. interest. Now, deputies say that. Scribbin's phone bore out the theory. that he was hypervigilant about deleting. conversations and images. The search. found that the only texts on Scribbin's. phone were between himself and family. members and the conversation with the. teen, which he apparently hadn't had a. chance to delete yet. Now, according to. investigators, Scribbin initially said. he didn't think that what he was doing. was a big deal because he was under 18.

and claimed he would try to stop once he. reached his 18th birthday. But when a. detective reiterated exactly what. Christian had allegedly been asking. children to do, he reportedly said that. he should face the juvenile system, not. the adult jail. So Melba, yeah, Scribbin. was under 18 when a lot of this. happened. That's not a viable defense. though, right? No, it is not. Uh because. again, he had the intent. There's no. accident here. He knew that these kids.

were underage. He sought them out. specifically for that purpose. He. encouraged them to create child. pornography and he received said child. pornography and used it for his. purposes. So, you know, and the whole. I'm going to stop when I'm 18. This is. not like I'm going to stop eating carbs. by Monday, right? Like it's it's just. not you can't turn it on and off just. like that. this is truly an illness and. he needs therapy and you know intensive.

services in order to break that that. addiction that sickness. This is not. something he could just handle on his. own or his parents can help him through. it. This is this is going to require. serious medical intervention. So there's. as that aspect. So in Florida he's not. going to face the juvenile system. he'll. be charged as an adult uh because again. at the age of 17 we we do have that. option to be able to charge a juvenile. as an adult under circum certain. circumstances and with certain charges.

So these would all fall into into that. category. And so he's going to face the. adult system. He's facing a maximum of. 15 years in prison on each count. And. let's be clear, each video, each photo. could be a separate count. It's all. dependent on the way that the prosecutor. wants to charge him. >> So if he's had a thousand of these. instances in the last year and we have.

substanti substantiated evidence for. that, it could literally be a an. indictment with or an information as we. call it with a thousand charges each of. them facing a maximum of 15 years. Clearly that's that that would make. things a little hectic in court, but you. know we have seen 10 20 30 separate. charges for these types of cases. >> Now Scribbin was originally taken to the. Department of Juvenile Justice, but he. was later upgraded to adult court. He. was taken to the Marian County Jail.

where he's being held without bond and. he faces three charges right now. Use of. a computer to seduce, solicit, or lure a. child. unlawful use of two-way. communications device to facilitate. directing or promoting sexual. performance by a child. And his next. court date is scheduled for next week. It's a pre-trial conference before jury. selection set to begin. This case, by. the way, I will tell you, has eerie. similarities to what we want to talk. about next. Multiple lawsuits that were. filed since July against the Roblox.

Corporation, claiming that the platform. is complicit in the abuse of minors. And. many of the lawsuits name a secondary. app alongside Roblox. So for example, a. federal complaint that was filed by a. Michigan 11-year-old's family named. Discord, Discord, Inc., the online. platform geared toward gamers. And then. you have a lawsuit out of Pennsylvania. on behalf of a 12-year-old girl who. named Snap Inc. That's the parent. company of Snapchat. So that suit. references a study that was done by.

Hinderberg Research and published in. October 2024. It's titled Roblox. inflated key metrics for Wall Street and. a pedophile hellscape for kids. That. research includes a quote from a former. employee which the plaintiffs use as. part of their argument that roadblocks. put profit above safety. And it says, "The reason for defendants unlawful. conduct is simple. Defendants prioritize. growing the number of users of their. products over child safety." As one. former Roblox employee explained in. describing the company's approach to. child safety, "You have to make a.

decision, right? You can keep your. players safe, but then it would be less. of them on the platform. Or you just let. them do what they want to do and then. the numbers all look good and investors. will be happy. Snap has taken the same. approach to child safety on its product. Defendants prioritization of growth over. the safety of children has devastated. the lives of children who use their. products, including Pliff. And it's not. just communications that eventually move. to other apps that are ringing alarm. bells. It's the inapp activity as well.

For example, the lawsuit states, "Simulated sexual activity pervades the. Roblox product, as Defendant Roblox well. knows. There have been numerous reports. of children's avatars being raped by. other users avatars. For example, in. 2018, a 7-year-old girl's avatar was. violently raped by two male avatars on a. playground in a Roblox experience, which. was witnessed by the girl's mother.". Now, Roblox has also been called out for. what I mentioned before, its. experiences, which are less about games.

and more of kind of the allegation being. a virtual peep show. Reading from the. lawsuit, they can also play games like. Public Bathroom Simulator Vibe, which. allows access to users as young as 9. years old. And this enables users to. simulate sexual activity in virtual. bathrooms as well as virtual strip clubs. where child avatars perform sexually. explicit acts like giving lap dances to. patrons. Melba, this is not Super Mario. anymore. I mean, what is going on here?

It's insane that this type of conduct, this type of content wouldn't be. immediately removed. There seems to be. grounds for this lawsuit, right? >> Or these lawsuits. Absolutely. And I can tell you right now. what's going to happen. Roblox is going. to start cutting a whole bunch of checks. because they're going to have to settle. There is no way that they are going to. be able to take this into a court of law. and go to trial and think that they're. going to prevail. It's not happening. So. the question is how much money are they. going to pay each of these families? And.

more importantly, what steps are they. going to take to make sure that children. are safe on their platform? And not only. just children, adults, because if you. happen to be someone that's a gamer, and. we've also seen these stories about how. female gamers are again having these. violent things happen to their avatars. and all of that. And that is something. again that's traumatizing and is, you. know, can leave the same scars as an.

encounter of the same nature in real. life because again, your sense of safety. is compromised. You've been violated and. all of that. So, it's on Roblox to. moving forward make sure that this does. not happen again. And they have to fix. it. And now they've learned the hard way. that you can't put profits over people. And by the way, it doesn't stop there. because the virtual tends to reflect. what's dominating headlines in the real. world. Quote, "A recent investigative.

report also exposed a multitude of other. exploitative experiences on Roblox that. recklessly trivialize and gify serious. criminal conduct, including rape." The. report confirmed that defendant Roblox. actively hosted over 600 Diddy games. with titles like Survive Diddy, Run from. Diddy Simulator, and Diddy Party, which. appear to recreate reported incidents. involving the music mogul Shawn Combmes. publicly known as Diddy. Another.

lawsuit, this one involving the alleged. victimization of a 12-year-old New York. girl, explained why this can be so. harmful. Quote, "The effects of these. games on children can be devastating. Playing video games with explicit sexual. content normalizes exploitative and. predatory behavior, blurring the lines. of what is acceptable in real life. This. is particularly harmful for children who. are still developing their understanding. of social norms and morality. When such. behavior is depicted as humorous, exciting, or rewarded within a game, young players can internalize the idea.

that harassment or sexual exploitation. is harmless or even acceptable. So, so. Melba, this has been part of the child. wellness conversation for years. And. anytime you have a developing brain who. is immersed that is immersed in. something, good or bad, it can have a. huge impact. How do you prove the claim, right, that a heavily sexualized. environment infected a ch affected a. child's upbringing? If we're talking. about causation, if we're talking about. harm, is that going to be difficult in. these in in litigation?

>> It won't be that difficult from the. standpoint of this is where you bring in. expert witnesses. And so when you have. these uh these victims, these survivors. that are now in therapy, you have the. ability for an expert to come on and. talk about, listen, these these are the. types of lasting effects that this type. of trauma can have on a child's brain. You will see a higher rate of truency. You may see drug use. You may see.

aggressive behavior. You may see. depression. All of these different. aspects. And of course, the parents can. attest to the changes in the behavior. that they've seen in their child, you. know, before this horrible encounter and. afterwards. So, all of these aspects are. going to be important in proving a case. And again, that type of testimony is. going to break a jury's heart, which. would result in a huge verdict against. Roblox. >> And of course, this alleged abuse. doesn't just stay in the virtual world.

According to a lawsuit that was filed on. behalf of a boy who was just 11 years. old when his alleged exploitation began, he was actually kidnapped. The lawsuit. says the Texas 11-year-old had recently. moved and didn't have friends at his new. school. So, he leaned heavily on Roblox, you know, as a way to socialize and he. thought he was talking to another child. when that person started asking for. things like nude photos. That complaint. reads, "Plainiff traveled to the. perpetrator's home, and when he arrived, he learned for the first time that the. individual he had been chatting with was.

not a minor child like he was, but an. adult man in his 30s. There was. pornography playing on the television, and the perpetrator removed his clothing. and then coerced Pliff to remove his.". Plainif was subjected to horrific sexual. abuse and molestation by the adult. perpetrator, predator, until he was. eventually able to escape. So, how is. Roblox responding to these allegations? Well, typically corporations won't. respond to litigation while it's. ongoing, but Roblox staff published a. blog post on its website on August 15th. in response to a lawsuit that was filed.

in Louisiana. But maybe that could apply. to all the complaints because it says, "Every day, tens of millions of people. around the world use Roblox to learn. STEM skills, play, and imagine, and have. a safe experience on our platform. Any. assertion that Roblox would. intentionally put our users at risk of. exploitation is simply untrue. No system. is perfect and bad actors adapt to evade. detection, including efforts to take. users to other platforms where safety. standards and moderation practices may. differ. We continuously work to block.

those efforts and to enhance our. moderation approaches to promote a safe. and enjoyable environment for all users. And the company also posted an article. titled clarifying our policy on romantic. and sexual content, expanding policies. to help younger users have better. experiences on Roblox. So, according to. the company, it is updating its terms of. service to not include a ban on. unimplied sexual activity, and it says. it has plans to add maturity ratings to. experiences. Also, certain social. hangouts will be restricted to ID.

verified users 17 or older. What do you. make of that response? You you said. before that they're going to have to. write checks out, but are they seemingly. defending themselves? Hey, putting in. the appropriate safeguards. Hey, we. we've done our best to try to moderate. and try to protect unsafe behavior, but. there are things that these people will. do to evade detection. There's only so. much we can control. Your your response. to their response so far? >> So, yes, it's a good thing that they are. implementing more protocols in terms of. age verified rooms and all of that, but.

it's a little too little too late. because again, now you've had people. that have been victimized and it's not. that it was unforeseeable. This is a. little bit too too little too late. because now we still have thousands of. victims. The fact that tens of millions. of people weren't harmed, yeah, that's. great. But what about those thousands of. children that were harmed? And there. there were ways to prevent this from. happening. And so, you know, I think at. the end of the day, they will have to do.

a lot more. And this statement is not. going to be enough to rehabilitate their. image or anything along those lines. Yes, they will be seen as taking taking. mitigation steps for the future, but. that does not address what happened in. the past. >> Melba Pearson, thank you so much for. coming on talking about this really. really disturbing stuff. Um, but we'll. continue to keep an eye on it. Thank you. so much. >> Thank you, Jesse. >> And that's all we have for you right now. here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so. much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple.

Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should. get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll. speak to you next time. [Music].