Roblox’s chief executive is facing a wave of fury after his company sent a cease and desist letter to a YouTuber known for exposing alleged child predators on the online gaming platform.
The Roblox Corporation reportedly issued a legal complaint last week to a 22-year-old content creator known as “Schlep,” who revealed this in a YouTube video. The chief executive of the platform is founder David Baszucki.
Sharing the full cease and desist letter on X, the company’s lawyers cited violations such as simulated child endangerment and sharing personal information. They argued that such actions bypassed official moderation channels.
Schlep, a self-styled “predator hunter” who has over 767,000 YouTube subscribers, had all associated Roblox accounts terminated in the high-profile conflict with the company.
In return, Schlep, who claims his investigations led to six arrests of individuals attempting to groom minors on Roblox, accused the company of repeatedly ignoring evidence presented by him and other vigilante streamers.
In his video, Schlep alleges that his motivations stem from personal experience having been groomed as a child on the platform, which he said led to a suicide attempt. The Independent has approached Schlep for comment and to seek verification of his claims.
Schlep also claimed that Baszucki blocked him on X.
Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna has launched an online petition against Roblox, accusing the platform of insufficient child safety measures. He hopes to garner one million signatures by Friday.
“Roblox is simply not doing enough to protect our kids, to inform parents, and to go after child predators,” Khanna said in a TikTok video.
After Roblox’s legal threat, Schlep reached out to Republican Senator Ted Cruz on X and then by email on Monday, advocating for political attention to the company’s safety policies.
Schlep argued that the platform’s alleged negligence toward protecting young players had already been the subject of lawsuits in Texas. It was not immediately clear whether Cruz’s office responded.
The incident has sparked widespread backlash, reigniting debate over platform moderation versus vigilante actions, with critics accusing Roblox of hypocrisy and placing legal threats above child safety.
Campaigns such as “#FreeSchlep” and “#BoycottRoblox” have gained traction, supported by major creators like MoistCr1TiKal and JiDeon.
A petition calling for Baszucki to “fix what he’s caused or resign” had more than 48,000 signatures by Thursday morning. Another video citing the petitions for the Roblox CEO’s resignation surpassed 1.2 million views on YouTube.
Full legal cease and desist notice from Roblox to me. pic.twitter.com/E6KmKdDEkH
— Schlep (@RealSchlep) August 9, 2025
After the wave of backlash, Roblox Corporation released a statement on Wednesday explaining why it removed vigilante groups from the platform, without explicitly naming Schlep.
“While seemingly well-intentioned, the vigilantes we’ve banned have taken actions that are both unacceptable and create an unsafe environment for users,” it said.
“Similar to actual predators, they often impersonated minors, actively approached other users, then tried to lead them to other platforms to have sexually explicit conversations.”
Roblox said that while most chats between its more than 111 million daily active users are “safe and civil,” there are “bad actors” that attempt to evade its moderation system.
The company emphasized that reporting through official channels is safer and more effective than vigilante actions.
The Independent has contacted the Roblox Corporation for more information.
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