Roblox blocked in Russia for disseminating prohibited materials - Roskomnadzor
MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) - Russian telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor has blocked the Roblox online gaming platform in Russia, which is popular with children, for disseminating extremist materials and LGBT propaganda, Roskomnadzor's press service said.
"Roskomnadzor has restricted user access to the U.S. Internet service Roblox over registered facts of massive and repeated dissemination of materials with propaganda and justification of extremist and terrorist activities, calls for committing illegal violent actions and LGBT propaganda," the press service told reporters on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Russian users started complaining on relevant resources about the inaccessibility of the Roblox gaming platform in Russia.
Roskomnadzor again said that "the monitoring of Roblox repeatedly confirmed the inability of the internal moderation system to ensure 100% security of the materials appearing on the platform," and also that "there is a lot of improper content in the gaming space," which can negatively affect the spiritual and moral development of children, conditions and preconditions are being created for the commission of illegal actions." Roskomnadzor's press service made a similar statement on November 29.
"Such actions are committed, among other things, in so-called rooms and game locations where users can become perpetrators of terrorist actions, attack a school, and gamble," Roskomnadzor said.
"Children are molested in the game, they are lured to provide their intimate photos, are being involved in sexual misconduct and violence as Roblox is popular with pedophiles, who meet minors right in the game chats and then switch over to real life," it said.
"Situations of such illegal conduct towards children have long become widespread both in the United States and in Russia," Roskomnadzor said.
In 2025, Roskomnadzor repeatedly sent notices to the Roblox administration demanding that user access to prohibited materials be restricted in keeping with the decisions made by relevant authorities, Roskomnadzor said.
On July 10, Roskomnadzor's press service said Roblox had deleted three materials recognized as prohibited in Russia at the watchdog's demand "which depicted LGBT characters and attributes of the LGBT community. Dissemination of such information violates the Russian legislation (in November 2023, the Russian Supreme Court granted the Justice Ministry's lawsuit seeking recognition of the 'international LGBT movement' as extremist and a ban on it in Russia)."
Roblox is an online gaming platform and a system for creating games that allows any user to create their own games and play games created by others. It was created in the United States in 2006. According to the company's data as of the third quarter of this year, its daily active audience is more than 150 million users worldwide.
Roblox Corporation, which developed the platform, placed shares on the New York Stock Exchange through direct listing in March 2021. Its market value at that moment was some $45 billion.
