School District Sues Microsoft, Roblox Over Harm Caused by Video Games

Champion Local School District from Ohio filed a lawsuit against Roblox, Microsoft, and a Microsoft subsidiary on Feb. 21, claiming the video games from these companies negatively impact children.

The lawsuit was filed with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division. Roblox is an online gaming and social platform that allows user-generated game content.

The platform, widely used by children and teenagers, includes interactive experiences, virtual worlds, and hangout spaces. Microsoft subsidiary Mojang AB is the developer of Minecraft, while Microsoft is involved in Minecraft and sells Xbox gaming products.

The defendants’ video game products “incorporate psychological techniques into their game designs to intentionally make their video game products addictive to youth to capitalize on the monetization of children’s video game play. Defendants knew of the documented harms associated with these features and continuous video game play, and failed to disclose these facts to Plaintiff and the public,” the lawsuit said.

“Defendants’ video games formed a gateway to video game addiction and left school districts, which are on the front lines of the many challenges facing America’s youth, with the dauntless task of responding to the crisis of video game addiction.”

Actions of the companies have forced school districts, like the plaintiff, to divert already limited resources to address the resulting mental health crisis.

The school district has been forced to expend, divert, and increase human and financial resources to prevent video game use during school time, hire counselors to address video game addiction among children, and address the “consistent and pervasive disruption to the learning process” caused by video game addiction, according to the complaint.

Schools must now spend their scarce funds to protect children’s well-being against “virtually unlimited resources” of the companies, which the lawsuit said was a fight the schools “cannot afford to lose.”

The companies are alleged to have represented to the plaintiff and the general public that their video game products were educational, beneficial for STEM fields, and safe for young people.

“This litigation seeks to hold Defendants accountable for deploying behavioral modification systems without adequate warnings or safeguards, harming America’s youth, schools, and communities,” the lawsuit said.

The Epoch Times reached out to Roblox, Microsoft, and Mojang for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Roblox is already facing a slew of lawsuits over child safety issues. In December last year, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced a lawsuit against Roblox for failing to take essential precautions to protect the state’s children from sexual exploitation.

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, Roblox chief safety officer Matt Kaufman said the lawsuit contained “patently false claims” regarding the platform.

“Roblox is built with safety at its core. We have advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications. Users cannot send or receive images via chat, eliminating one of the most prevalent opportunities for misuse seen elsewhere online,” Kaufman said.

Earlier, in August 2025, Roblox and communications app Discord were sued by the father of a 10-year-old girl, who accused the companies of “recklessly and deceptively operating businesses” in a way that allegedly resulted in his child’s kidnapping.

Lawmaker Action

In May 2025, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) to strengthen protections for children online, according to a May 14 statement from the office of Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), one of the lawmakers who introduced the measure.

The bill requires online platforms, including those offering video game services, to implement tools and safeguards to protect users and visitors under 17 from harm. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

“We would never allow our children to be exposed to pornography, sexual exploitation, drugs, alcohol, and traffickers in the physical space, but these platforms are allowing this every single day in the virtual space,” Blackburn said.

“Congress must not cave to the wills and whims of Big Tech, and we must not be bullied into submission. Now is the time to stand up and protect future generations from harm by passing KOSA.”

In an Aug. 15, 2025, statement, Pennsylvania State University cited a study conducted by its researchers that found that older siblings and friends may help keep children safe on online gaming platforms such as Minecraft and Roblox.

While these platforms offer parental controls, children may hesitate to tell their parents about their experiences on these sites, the statement said. This can make it difficult to protect kids while they interact online.

However, “although children may not share risky online encounters with their parents, they tend to share them with siblings, peers, or extended family members like their aunts and uncles, who may be closer in age and have some knowledge of or even play games like Roblox,” said Zinan Zhang, first author of the study.

“These individuals can help children build knowledge of and avoid scams and other risky situations in online video games.”