Roblox called ‘pedophile hellscape for kids’ in new report amid stock trading in Congress

WASHINGTON (TNND) — A new report released Tuesday claims that Roblox, a popular online video game, has become a “pedophilic hellscape for children,” despite several members of Congress and their associates choosing to buy and sell stock in the company in recent years .

Hindenburg Research, a company that focuses on financial studies, released a report on Tuesday explaining that bad actors are known to groom children on Roblox and encourage them to “trade sexual content.” Cases of kidnapping and rape have also been documented, the group says.

People associated with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Rep. Dan Goldman, DY, bought and sold the company’s shares between the fall of 2021 and early 2023, Capitol Trades data shows.

Capitol Trades, which lists transactions by lawmakers in Congress based on ethics documents, indicates whether a purchase or sale is made by the lawmaker or someone else. Rep. Pelosi’s wife, Paul Pelosi, is listed as the owner of Roblox or RBLX stock.

Rep. Banks is described as co-owning some of his shares, but Capitol Trades is not disclosing any relationships he has with others. The website points out the children of Rep. Khanna as owners of RBLX shares. Capitol Trades Makes Rep.’s Relationship Goldman with transactions for RBLX not known.

Capitol Trades records show that the people associated with the lawmakers traded in RBLX as allegations about 8- to 14-year-old children being “groomed” reportedly appeared in indictments from 2019 to this year.

According to Capitol Trades, Paul Pelosi bought between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of RBLX in 2021. He later sold between $100,000 and about $250,000 of his shares between 2022 and 2023, the website’s records show.

Representative Pelosi did not return a request for comment from TNND.

Capitol Trades also shows that an individual associated with Rep. Banks bought between $15,000 and $65,000 worth of RBLX in November 2021. That same month, the employee sold between $1,000 and $15,000 of the stock, according to the records.

Rep. Banks did not answer TNND’s questions about the transactions.

Capitol Trades names at least one of Rep.’s children. Khanna as the owner of between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of Roblox shares purchased in 2021. Six months later, that owner sold RBLX shares for the same amount, records show.

Representative Khanna told TNND that he does not own or sell individual stocks. However, according to the congressman, his wife already owned assets controlled by an “independent third party” before the two got married.

“Both the purchase and sale of these shares were handled by an independent third party without my knowledge,” said Rep. Khanna.

According to Capitol Trades, an individual associated with Rep. Goldman sold between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of Roblox stock last year. He did not answer questions from TNND.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation is calling on Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act following the release of the Hindenburg Research report.

“Roblox is rightly under fire from investors for refusing to implement the most basic, common sense measures to protect its young users, a quarter of whom are under the age of nine. Roblox has knowingly made children vulnerable to the many predators and pornographic content that is rampant on its platform. We commend Hindenburg Research for drawing additional attention to Roblox’s failure to adequately protect children,” said Lina Nealon of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.

Roblox rejected Hindenburg Research’s report, writing in a statement that “safety” and “civility” are “fundamental” to the company.

“Roblox takes any substandard content or behavior on the platform very seriously, and Roblox has a robust set of proactive and preventative security measures designed to detect and prevent malicious or malicious activity on the platform,” the statement reads. .

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