Lesson from Texas’ Roblox case: How will Bangladesh protect its children in the digital playground?

Roblox is not just a game. It is a bustling digital city where children build houses, design games, chat with friends, and meet strangers — often all at once.

To a parent, it looks colorful and harmless. To a child, it feels exciting and limitless. But to anyone who has watched the news lately, it also raises a difficult question: are our children truly safe in these virtual spaces?

In the United States, that question has now reached the courtroom. The Texas Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against Roblox, alleging that the company misled parents about safety and failed to protect children from sexual exploitation and harmful content. 

Whatever the final verdict, the message is loud and clear: regulators are losing patience, and "trust us" is no longer enough. For Bangladesh where children use the same global platforms, this should serve as a wake-up call.

What the Texas case tells us 

The Texas case against Roblox, filed in early November 2025, highlights serious concerns about online safety. The state alleges that Roblox presented itself as a safe platform while allowing features that exposed children to significant risks. 

Among the key issues are weak age verification, chat and friend systems that put minors in contact with predators, and safety measures that fail to match the scale of the problem. Texas is demanding stronger safety systems, stricter penalties, and much greater transparency. Similar concerns have been raised by other US states. 

Roblox, for its part, insists that it uses a combination of AI and human moderators, restricts communication for users under 13, collaborates with law enforcement, and continually improves its safety measures. 

For Bangladeshi parents, this case matters because our children play on the same global digital playground. The rules of the game — and the risks — travel across borders at the speed of an app update.

Why restrictions do not work

Let's be honest. Age gates don't really gate. Many platforms ask for a birthdate but rarely verify it, so children can pretend to be 18 with just a few taps. Chats blur the line between friend and stranger, and children often meet people they have never seen in real life, some of whom pretend to be their age. User-generated worlds move faster than the rules meant to govern them. 

In one corner of the platform, children learn teamwork and design; in another, they can stumble into nasty language, sexual content, scams, or manipulation. Silence is common — kids fear losing their device if they admit trouble, don't know where to report, and often think it is their fault. Harm spreads beyond the screen: anxiety, sleep problems, loss of focus, sudden mood swings, and secret late-night chats are early warning signs adults often miss. 

This is not just a big-city issue. With cheap data and personal phones, the risks now reach every district. 

Short-term bans and sudden blocks grab headlines and cool tempers, but the platform returns, or another one takes its place. Children adapt faster than our rules. Imposing a mere ban without a systematic reform is like locking one door while leaving every window open. What we need is a safety net — law, design, education, and quick help when things go wrong.

What Bangladesh should do

Bangladesh must take decisive steps to protect children online. 

First, child online safety should become a clear legal duty. Laws need to define and enforce offenses such as grooming, sexual extortion, and the trading of child-abuse material online—before physical abuse occurs. Regulators should be empowered to demand safer defaults, faster takedowns, and transparent reporting from platforms that reach Bangladeshi children. 

Short-term bans and sudden blocks grab headlines and cool tempers, but the platform returns, or another one takes its place. Children adapt faster than our rules. Imposing a mere ban without a systematic reform is like locking one door while leaving every window open. What we need is a safety net — law, design, education, and quick help when things go wrong.

Second, the country should establish a national child-online-safety center: a single, accessible front door with a 24/7 Bangla hotline and web portal where children, parents, and teachers can report abuse, ask questions, and get help. This center should coordinate the ICT Division, BTRC, education boards, police, cyber units, and child-welfare services to ensure no report falls through the cracks.

Third, platforms with a significant number of minors in Bangladesh must adopt "safety by design." They should verify age credibly while protecting privacy, default minors to strict privacy settings that block open chat with unknown adults, detect grooming patterns and block suspicious contact quickly, offer simple Bangla reporting tools, and publish transparency reports on incidents and response times in Bangladesh. 

Fourth, the country must build capacity to respond. Investigators, prosecutors, judges, school counselors, and social workers need training to recognize online harm, preserve digital evidence, and support child victims without blame or fear. Tools and training are just as important as laws. 

Finally, digital citizenship must be taught at scale. Age-appropriate lessons on online strangers, consent, privacy, red flags, and reporting should be added to the national curriculum, and TV, social media, and community programs should be used to reach guardians. Messages should be repeated annually, because children grow fast, and apps change even faster.

Shared responsibilities of parents and schools

Parents and guardians don't need to be "techy" to take action—start simple, and do it this week. Spend the first ten minutes asking your child to show you their favorite game and watch them play. Ask who they chat with and agree on a rule: no private chats with strangers. 

In the next ten minutes, turn on parental controls, set the real age in Roblox and other apps, limit friend requests to "friends of friends" or no one at all, and disable purchases or require your approval. 

In the final ten minutes, create a small family tech agreement: decide where devices should be used (not in bedrooms), when they should be turned off (bedtime), and how to handle strange messages—tell an adult immediately. Place devices in a shared space at night and save reporting links for quick access if anything goes wrong. 

Watch for red flags such as sudden mood shifts, secrecy with the device, new "friends" nobody has met, requests to move from game chat to private apps, and late-night activity. If something happens, stay calm. Comfort your child first, take screenshots, report in-app, and, if serious, go to the authorities. How you react today can determine whether your child will feel safe telling you tomorrow.

Schools can take practical steps starting this term. Hold a 20-minute assembly once a month focused on a practical online-safety tip. Display a poster at every gate with a clear message: "Stranger online means stranger in real life." Assign a named counsellor or teacher whom students can approach without fear, and organize short, friendly parent evenings to demonstrate how to turn on safety controls. Encourage students to take a simple pledge—to avoid moving chats to private apps and to report anything that feels wrong.

The Texas lawsuit may or may not end with big penalties. But we don't need a judge in Austin to tell us what we already know in Dhaka, Chattogram, or Rajshahi: children deserve safety wherever they play—on the field, at home, and on the screen. The time to look deeply at Roblox and similar platforms is not after the next headline. It is right now.

Mehdi Khan is currently engaged in research and initiatives focused on entrepreneurship development, digital transformation, and sustainable investment strategies in Bangladesh.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.