UK court jails Roblox user for five years over child grooming

A UK court sentenced a 23-year-old man to five years and four months in prison on Friday for child sex offenses initiated by targeting a 12-year-old on the gaming platform Roblox, local media reported.

The conviction underscores the persistent moderation risk for multiplayer titles with massive youth user bases, demonstrating how predators exploit in-game chat features to move minors onto unmonitored messaging applications like WhatsApp.

Ryan Caine pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to multiple charges, including five counts of engaging in sexual communications with a child and three counts of making indecent images, Cheshire Police said.

Police arrested Caine in April last year following a raid that recovered two mobile phones. "Through the use of social media, he specifically targeted young girls, plying them with sexualised messages and indecent images in order to fulfil his own sexual desires," Detective Constable Luke Chadwick of Cheshire Police said in a statement.

Forensic device analysis uncovered communications with five other teenagers aged 13 to 16, alongside 86 images of child abuse. Investigators classified 25 of those files as category A, the UK’s most severe legal tier for such material.

In addition to the prison term, the court imposed a 30-year sexual harm prevention order and required Caine to register as a sex offender.