The mother of a 15-year-old boy from California who ended his own life is now taking legal action against Roblox and Discord. She claims these platforms played a role in her son’s death by allegedly enabling grooming and coercion to share explicit images on their services.

Rebecca Dallas initiated the lawsuit on Friday at the San Francisco County Superior Court, accusing both companies of running their businesses recklessly and deceptively, which she believes resulted in the sexual exploitation and subsequent suicide of Ethan Dallas.

Ethan was a “bright, imaginative boy who loved gaming, streaming and interacting with friends online,” the lawsuit states.

According to the lawsuit, Ethan began using the Roblox gaming platform with the consent and oversight of his parents at around age 9. By the time he was 12, he had been targeted by an “adult sex predator” who pretended to be a child on Roblox, eventually gaining Ethan’s trust, as detailed by Rebecca’s lawyers.

What started out as innocent conversation “gradually escalated to sexual topics and explicit exchanges,” the complaint says.

After a while, the man encouraged Ethan to turn off parental controls and move their conversations to Discord, the lawyers said.

On the Discord platform, the predator reportedly started making demands for explicit photos and videos, threatening to distribute them if Ethan didn’t comply. Out of fear, Ethan followed the predator’s demands, claims the legal complaint.

“Tragically, Ethan was permanently harmed and haunted by these experiences, and he died by suicide at the age of 15,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit charges Roblox and Discord with wrongful death, fraudulent concealment and misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, and strict liability.

The complaint asserts that if Roblox and Discord had implemented user screening, age and identity checks, and other protective measures, “Ethan would have never encountered this predator, suffered the harm he did, or died by suicide.”

Apps not safe for kids, suit says

Dallas, of San Diego County, thought both platforms were safe for her son to use to communicate with friends while gaming, given how the apps marketed themselves and the parental controls she set, the suit contended.

Roblox is used daily by 111 million people, according to its website, offering a variety of games, obstacle courses, and the ability to chat with other users. It is free to make an account and there is no age minimum, nor required age verification.

Discord, launched in 2015, is a communications platform commonly used by gamers who want to chat or video chat while playing video games. The suit said that the app doesn’t verify age or identity.

The suit claims Roblox allowed Ethan to turn off the parental controls and Discord allowed him to create an account and communicate with adults without any parental oversight. It said that while Roblox states children must have parental permission to sign up, “nothing prevents them from creating their own accounts and playing on Roblox.”

The suit alleges the two apps misrepresented safety on their platforms, saying the design of the apps “makes children easy prey for pedophiles” due to a lack of safeguards and predator screening.

After Ethan’s tragic death, his family learned from law enforcement that the man who groomed him had been arrested in Florida “for sexually exploiting other children through Defendants’ apps,” the complaint said.

Today, Roblox’s default settings do not allow adults to directly message children under the age of 13, but children can still create accounts with fake birth dates giving them full access to direct-messaging options, the complaint said.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss. While we cannot comment on claims raised in litigation, we always strive to hold ourselves to the highest safety standard,” a spokesperson for Roblox told NBC News.

Roblox said it is designed with “rigorous built in safety features” and is “continually innovating new safety features — over 100 this year alone — that protect our users and empower parents and caregivers with greater control and visibility.”

Safety efforts include processes to detect and act on problematic behaviors and 24/7 human moderation. Roblox added that the company partners with law enforcement and leading child safety and mental health organizations worldwide to combat the sexual exploitation of children.

While Discord has settings to keep minors safe such as automatically scanning messages for explicit images and videos, the suit said Discord is “overflowing with sexually explicit images and videos involving children, including anime and child sex abuse material.”

Discord said it doesn’t comment on legal matters but said the platform is “deeply committed to safety.”

“We require all users to be at least 13 to use our platform. We use a combination of advanced technology and trained safety teams to proactively find and remove content that violates our policies,” a spokesperson said. “We maintain strong systems to prevent the spread of sexual exploitation and grooming on our platform and also work with other technology companies and safety organizations to improve online safety across the internet.”

Other allegations against Roblox, Discord

Anapol Weiss, the firm that filed Dallas’ suit, noted this is the ninth lawsuit it has filed in connection with allegations that children were groomed, exploited or assaulted after contact on Roblox or related platforms.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation in 2024 complied a “Dirty Dozen” list of mainstream entitles it says facilitate, enable and profit from sexual abuse and exploitation. It included Discord, saying “this platform is popular with predators seeking to groom kids and with creeps looking to create, trade or find sexually abusive content of children and unsuspecting adults,” and Roblox, saying children are exposed to sex-themed games and exposed to predators.

An NBC News investigation in 2023 found 35 cases over the six years prior in which adults were prosecuted on charges of kidnapping, grooming or sexual assault that allegedly involved communications on Discord.

In August, Louisiana’s top prosecutor sued Roblox, alleging that its failure to implement strong safety protocols for children has made it “the perfect place for pedophiles.”

“This case lays bare the devastating consequences when billion-dollar platforms knowingly design environments that enable predators to prey on vulnerable children,” said Alexandra Walsh, a partner at Anapol Weiss. “These companies are raking in billions. Children are paying the price.”

Dallas seeks a jury trial and compensatory damages.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988, or go to 988lifeline.org, to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.