The following article discusses themes including rape and sexual assault that some readers may find distressing.
The makers of online game creation platform Roblox have responded after a mother shared details of her daughter’s character getting ‘gang raped’ online.
Amber Peterson wrote a Facebook post about the incident, stating: ” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. My sweet and innocent daughter’s avatar was being VIOLENTLY GANG-RAPED ON A PLAYGROUND by two males.
“A female observer approached them and proceeded to jump on her body at the end of the act. Then the 3 characters ran away, leaving my daughter’s avatar laying on her face in the middle of the playground.
“Although I was immediately able to shield my daughter from seeing the entire interaction, I am shuddering to think of what kind of damage this image could have on her psyche, as well as any other child that could potentially be exposed to this.
“I urge you to take another look at the security settings on all of your devices and closely supervise your child if you allow them to continue playing games with online platforms such as Roblox.”
Peterson’s post has since gone viral and she has since been doing interviews on US news.
A spokesperson for the game, which is rated age 7+ by EU ratings board PEGI, told Sky News: “We were outraged to learn that Roblox‘s community policies and rules of conduct were subverted.
“We have identified how this bad actor created the offending action and are putting additional safeguards in place to reduce the possibility of this happening again in the future. In addition, the offender was identified and has been permanently banned from the platform and we have suspended the game.
“We have zero tolerance for this behaviour. Our work to ensure a safe platform is always evolving and remains a top priority for us.”
