Two months after sending Schlep a cease and desist letter for catching predators on Roblox, the company quietly reached out. This came after he appeared at CrimeCon with Chris Hansen and lawyers representing 500+ alleged victims while multiple states filed lawsuits. The November 2025 contact represents a dramatic reversal for a company that spent weeks publicly defending its decision to ban the whistleblower who helped law enforcement arrest six predators.
- How Did We Get Here
- The Ban That Sparked National Outrage
- Roblox’s Defense Made Things Worse
- The Lawsuits Started Piling Up
- Chris Hansen Gets Involved
- The Timing Could Not Have Been Worse
- The November Contact
- What This Means for Child Safety
- The Questions That Remain
- FAQs About the Roblox Schlep Situation
- Conclusion
How Did We Get Here
Michael, known online as Schlep, started playing Roblox when he was just eight years old. What should have been innocent childhood gaming turned into a nightmare when a popular developer groomed him on the platform. The predator made him watch gore videos and sexually explicit content while manipulating him into inappropriate actions. When his mother reported the abuser to Roblox, nothing happened. The company only banned the developer years later after problems surfaced on another platform entirely.
That experience, combined with a subsequent suicide attempt, became Schlep’s motivation for eventually turning the tables. As he grew older and continued playing Roblox, fans constantly complained to him about predators on the platform. Instead of just making videos criticizing Roblox like he had done before, Schlep decided to take direct action. He created decoy accounts claiming to be minors, let predators send unprompted incriminating messages, and then handed everything to police as evidence.
The results spoke for themselves. Six arrests across the country, all documented in videos on his YouTube channel. Schlep worked alongside groups like EDP Watch founded by JiDion and Predator Poachers led by Alex Rosen. He coordinated with local police departments and claimed to collaborate with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. For fans who had been victimized on the platform, Schlep became a hero doing what Roblox should have been doing all along.
The Ban That Sparked National Outrage
On August 9, 2025, Schlep posted a photo to Twitter showing a cease and desist notice from Roblox Corporation. The letter accused him of violating their policies, specifically their new vigilante groups rule, and threatened legal action if he continued his activities. Roblox terminated all of his accounts and prohibited him from creating new ones. The company claimed he actively interfered with their protocols and should have reported inappropriate conduct through official channels instead of going to police.
The irony was not lost on anyone. Schlep had been groomed on Roblox as a child, reported it through official channels, and watched nothing happen until years later. Now the company was banning him for successfully getting predators arrested because he did not trust their broken reporting system. The timing made it worse. Roblox CEO David Baszucki blocked Schlep on Twitter, making it clear the company wanted nothing to do with him.
Schlep uploaded an 8-minute video titled Roblox Is Threatening to Sue Me For Protecting Kids that quickly went viral. He detailed his ban, criticized the platform’s hypocrisy, and called their claims laughably hilarious. He publicly appealed to Texas Senator Ted Cruz, stating he would love to discuss Roblox’s negligence regarding child safety. The backlash against Roblox was immediate and brutal.
Roblox’s Defense Made Things Worse
Rather than quietly backing down, Roblox doubled down with a public statement justifying the ban. The company argued that vigilante groups normalized inappropriate conduct on Roblox by impersonating minors and moving users off-site to participate in sexual conversations. They claimed vigilantes posing as minors made them equivalent to predators, a statement that enraged survivors and child safety advocates.
Roblox shared quotes from police, attorneys, and academics describing how vigilante groups can interfere with official investigations and undermine criminal proceedings. Matt Kaufman, head of Roblox security, released a video on August 16 calling Schlep’s actions vigilantism and claiming he took the law into his own hands. Schlep immediately pushed back, pointing out that handing information to cops who then make arrests is not taking the law into your own hands. He accused Roblox of lying about his methods.
The defense strategy backfired spectacularly. Instead of making Roblox look responsible, it made them look like a company more concerned with protecting their reputation than protecting children. The claim that people catching predators are equivalent to predators themselves struck many as morally bankrupt corporate spin.
The Lawsuits Started Piling Up
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a lawsuit against Roblox on August 15, 2025, calling the platform the perfect place for pedophiles. The lawsuit cited alleged lack of child safety measures and was directly connected to the Schlep controversy. Kentucky followed with similar accusations. By November 2025, Texas became the latest state to sue Roblox over child safety concerns, joining a growing list of legal challenges.
Individual families also began filing lawsuits. One Texas man sued claiming he was groomed by predators on the platform as a minor. These were not frivolous complaints from people looking for payouts. These were survivors and families who felt Roblox enabled abuse through negligent safety systems and then punished the person who exposed the problem.
The international community took notice too. Qatar banned Roblox entirely earlier in 2025, citing child safety concerns. This was not just an American legal problem. Roblox’s predator issue had become a global crisis that could no longer be managed through PR statements and cease and desist letters.
Chris Hansen Gets Involved
When Chris Hansen decides to investigate your platform, you know things have gotten serious. The journalist famous for To Catch a Predator announced he was producing a documentary exploring Roblox’s systemic failures and its decision to silence a whistleblower instead of confronting predators. Hansen has credibility, a massive audience, and decades of experience exposing child exploitation.
In September 2025, Schlep appeared alongside Hansen at CrimeCon in Denver for a panel discussion streamed on Fox Nation. Also present were Marion County Florida Detective Henrik Ousted and Steven Vanderporten, the attorney representing Schlep and over 500 alleged victims, many of whom are minors believed to have been exploited within Roblox’s online community. Together they discussed the sequence of events and Roblox’s strategy to reshape the narrative.
Hansen questioned why Roblox chose to ban a whistleblower instead of directing resources toward removing predators. His documentary promises to feature survivor stories, expose flaws in Roblox’s safety systems, and examine the company’s aggressive stance against those who reveal its weaknesses. For a company already facing multiple lawsuits, having Chris Hansen’s investigative lens focused on you is a nightmare scenario.
The Timing Could Not Have Been Worse
The CrimeCon appearance happened to coincide with the Roblox Developers Conference, the company’s annual event where they showcase new features and celebrate their creator community. While Roblox tried to generate positive buzz about platform innovations, Schlep was on stage with Chris Hansen explaining how predators exploit those same systems to target children. The optics could not have been more damaging.
Congressman Ro Khanna contacted Schlep and created a petition with a goal of 1 million signatures urging Roblox to do more to protect children. The political pressure combined with legal threats, bad publicity from Hansen’s involvement, and mounting lawsuits created a crisis that Roblox could no longer ignore through corporate statements defending their ban.
Roblox CEO David Baszucki, who had blocked Schlep on Twitter, gave an interview to CNBC on September 5 about child safety. He stated he plans to add new child safety measures and claimed he contacted Schlep for feedback, saying he would love his help maintaining platform security. Schlep immediately called this a PR stunt, and his legal team warned Roblox that the statement was inappropriate because it ignored Schlep’s past attempts to communicate with employees.
The November Contact
Two months after threatening Schlep with legal action, Roblox quietly reached out. The details of the conversation have not been fully disclosed, but the contact represents a significant shift in strategy. Rather than continuing to treat Schlep as an adversary who violated their terms of service, Roblox appears to recognize they need to address the underlying issues he exposed.
This reversal likely reflects the mounting pressure from lawsuits, political attention, Chris Hansen’s documentary, and the sheer volume of negative coverage. When multiple state attorneys general are calling your platform perfect for predators and suing you over child safety, maintaining the position that the whistleblower is the real problem becomes untenable.
Schlep’s legal team remains cautious. They represent not just him but hundreds of alleged victims who suffered on Roblox’s platform. Any resolution needs to address systemic safety failures, not just smooth over one contentious relationship. The November contact is a step, but whether it leads to meaningful change or just more corporate PR remains to be seen.
What This Means for Child Safety
| Development | Impact |
|---|---|
| Multiple State Lawsuits | Legal pressure forcing accountability beyond voluntary compliance |
| Chris Hansen Documentary | National attention from credible investigative journalist with history exposing predators |
| 500+ Victims Represented | Class action potential with substantial evidence of systemic problems |
| Congressional Petition | Political pressure from elected officials demanding action |
| Roblox Contacting Schlep | Potential shift from adversarial to collaborative approach on safety |
The broader implications extend beyond Roblox. This controversy highlights how gaming platforms with young user bases need robust safety systems that actually work. When a teenager can be more effective at catching predators than a multi-billion dollar corporation’s security team, something is fundamentally broken. Other platforms are watching this situation closely because they know similar scrutiny could come for them.
The Questions That Remain
Will Roblox actually implement meaningful safety improvements or just tweak policies to deflect criticism? Can a platform with millions of daily users effectively moderate interactions to prevent predator access? Should vigilante predator hunting be encouraged, tolerated, or banned given its effectiveness versus potential legal complications? What responsibility do platform owners have when their reporting systems consistently fail to protect children?
These questions do not have easy answers. Law enforcement has mixed feelings about civilian predator hunters. Some appreciate the evidence and arrests, others worry about contaminated investigations and legal complications. Parents appreciate anyone protecting their kids but recognize the ethical gray areas. Roblox wants to avoid liability while maintaining the illusion of safety that keeps parents allowing their children on the platform.
Schlep’s case forces these uncomfortable questions into the spotlight. His personal trauma gave him motivation that corporate moderators lack. His willingness to work with law enforcement distinguished him from reckless vigilantes. His success in achieving arrests demonstrated that Roblox’s official channels were inadequate. Now that Roblox has contacted him, the test is whether they genuinely want to learn from his experience or just want him to quietly go away.
FAQs About the Roblox Schlep Situation
Why did Roblox ban Schlep?
Roblox banned Schlep on August 9, 2025 for violating their vigilante groups policy. The company claimed he interfered with their safety protocols by creating decoy accounts, engaging predators, and reporting them to police instead of through Roblox’s official channels. Schlep successfully helped arrest six predators before being banned.
What is Schlep’s real name and background?
Schlep’s real name is Michael. He is a Texas-based YouTuber born in 2002 or 2003 who started playing Roblox at age eight. He was groomed by a popular developer on the platform during childhood, an experience that led to a suicide attempt and motivated his later predator-catching efforts.
How many predators did Schlep help arrest?
Schlep helped law enforcement arrest six predators who used Roblox to target minors. One of the arrests did not result in charges, but the others led to successful prosecutions. His investigations were documented on his YouTube channel.
Is Chris Hansen making a documentary about this?
Yes, Chris Hansen announced he is producing a documentary exploring Roblox’s systemic failures and its decision to ban Schlep instead of addressing predators. Hansen appeared with Schlep at CrimeCon in September 2025 for a panel discussion about the situation.
Which states are suing Roblox?
As of November 2025, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Texas have filed lawsuits against Roblox over child safety concerns. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill called the platform the perfect place for pedophiles in her August 2025 lawsuit.
How many victims are represented in the legal case?
Attorney Steven Vanderporten represents Schlep and over 500 alleged victims, many of whom are minors believed to have been exploited within Roblox’s online community. This represents potential class action lawsuit territory.
Did Roblox CEO David Baszucki block Schlep on social media?
Yes, Roblox CEO David Baszucki blocked Schlep on Twitter after the ban. However, in a September 2025 CNBC interview, Baszucki claimed he contacted Schlep and would love his help maintaining platform security, which Schlep called a PR stunt.
What happened at CrimeCon?
In September 2025, Schlep appeared at CrimeCon in Denver alongside Chris Hansen, Marion County Florida Detective Henrik Ousted, and attorney Steven Vanderporten. They discussed Roblox’s failure to protect children and the company’s strategy to reshape the narrative around the controversy.
Conclusion
The November 2025 contact between Roblox and Schlep marks a potential turning point in a controversy that exposed serious child safety failures on one of the world’s most popular gaming platforms. What started with one survivor’s determination to protect others escalated into multiple state lawsuits, a Chris Hansen documentary, congressional petitions, and legal representation for hundreds of alleged victims. Roblox’s decision to finally reach out after months of threatening legal action suggests the company recognizes it can no longer maintain its position that the whistleblower is the problem. Whether this leads to genuine safety improvements or just corporate damage control will determine if any good comes from this painful chapter. For parents with children on Roblox, the situation serves as a reminder that platform safety claims should be viewed skeptically and that vigilant supervision remains essential. For other gaming platforms, the Schlep controversy demonstrates what happens when you prioritize reputation management over child protection. The story is far from over, but at least the conversation is finally happening.