YouTuber Schlep is known for videos in which he apprehends Roblox users who engage in pedophile behavior. Now he faces legal consequences.
Roblox is not a simple game for children, but a huge platform with more active players per month than Steam (Roblox: 380 million users per month, Steam: 132 million users per month).
Approximately 40 percent of Roblox users are under the age of 13, making the platform a popular environment for pedophiles. YouTuber Schlep, who has been part of the Roblox community for 14 years, has made it his mission to track down these abusive users, expose them, and report them to the police. However, he has now been banned from the platform and received a letter from their legal department.
He summarizes the events in a YouTube video. According to him, after he and his team were responsible for the arrest of six pedophiles in Roblox last year, his accounts were banned and he received a warning letter.
In future, he will not be allowed to open a new Roblox account. If he disregards this, the company will take legal action against him. Schlep has published the full warning letter via Twitter/X. It accuses him of the following:
- Participation in simulated conversations about child endangerment
- Disclosure or request of personal data
- Instructing users to conduct conversations outside the platform
By posing as children to engage cybergroomers in conversations and collect their personal data for sharing with the police, he violated the platform’s guidelines.
Information & help with cybergrooming
Cybergrooming refers to the deliberate targeting of minors on the internet for sexual purposes – and is punishable by law in Germany.
The Federal Criminal Police Office provides information on how perpetrators operate, how to recognize the dangers, and what steps to take if you are affected. The site offers practical tips for children, parents, and professionals to ensure prevention and protection.
Instead of acting on his own, Schlep should have used the channels provided for reporting suspicious activity, according to Roblox. However, his methods “actively undermine Roblox’s established safety protocols and put Roblox users at increased risk.”
Roblox’s handling of “self-appointed law enforcers”
On the same day, Roblox Chief Security Officer Matt Kaufman published a blog post on the company’s website. In it, he discusses, among other things, how to deal with “self-appointed vigilantes” [note: in the original “Vigilante Groups”]:
Law enforcement agencies are best positioned to investigate potential crimes. Therefore, we want to ensure that all violations on Roblox are reported and handled through the appropriate channels. Unfortunately, there are cases where groups of self-appointed vigilantes or individuals violate our guidelines in order to trap users or otherwise control the platform themselves.
Although these groups appear to have the public’s best interests at heart, they are actually acting in a way that could harm others […]. Actions by self-appointed vigilante groups increase the risk that more users will be exposed to criminals and may delay enforcement by both Roblox and law enforcement agencies.
Any account, including those belonging to vigilante groups or individuals, that violates our guidelines will face consequences, which may include removal and suspension. We enforce our guidelines in accordance with our Community Standards and Terms of Service. […].
The actions of these groups, which are designed to create “sensationalist social media content,” result in suspects remaining on the platform for longer periods of time.
At the request of Schlep’s content on YouTube
Schlep himself has been active on Roblox since he was eight years old. At the time, he was also harassed by cyber groomers , which is why he decided as an adult to take action against users like them. His YouTube channel now has more than 620,000 subscribers. In his videos, he shows how he and his team lure cyber groomers into traps by pretending to be minors in chat rooms. To do this, Schlep works with controversial “hunter groups” such as EDPWatch and Predator Poachers, who meet with the perpetrators and confront them. Before the meetings, Schlep coordinates with local authorities and has already secured arrests in the past. He himself is shocked by Roblox’s actions and denies any wrongdoing. Although the platform is fundamental to his livelihood, he does not plan to return to Roblox with new accounts.
