KY mother sues gaming platform Roblox after teen daughter dies by suicide
A Northern Kentucky mother is suing a popular gaming company after her teen daughter died by suicide, claiming it allowed violent behavior to flourish on its platform.
The wrongful death complaint was filed Oct. 20 by Boone County woman Jaimee Seitz, the mother of Audree Heine, who died by suicide in December 2024, a week after 13th birthday.
Roblox is an online platform and game creation system that establishes a virtual universe and allows participants to create avatars and play games on their own or with other users. Nearly two-thirds of all U.S. children between ages nine and 12 play games on the platform.
Seitz claims her daughter was pushed to suicide by a Roblox community that glorifies and emulates violence and mass shootings.
Setiz’s lawsuit is the latest against the embattled platform. Earlier this month, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman also sued Roblox, becoming the second state in the U.S. to do so, after Louisiana.
Coleman claimed the company knowingly allowed its platform to be used for child grooming and sexual abuse. In all, more than 20 federal lawsuits have been filed nationwide accusing Roblox of allowing child exploitation, according to online court records.
Florida’s attorney general has also opened a child safety investigation into the company.
What Seitz’s lawsuit alleges
The 97-page lawsuit filed by Seitz argues that adults, often disguised as children, use platforms like Roblox and Discord to target children for sexual exploitation and violence. The adults thrive on Roblox, the lawsuit says, because it lacks an effective moderation or age verification system despite repeated assurances the platform is safe for kids.
Audree began playing Roblox when she was 8, according to the suit. She was creative and loved art and sports.
While on Roblox, Audree was exposed to the “True Crime Community,” where she was bullied and witnessed demonstrations of self-harm, according to the lawsuit.
Grooming and violence continued to another app, Discord, where she continued to be targeted with “violent rhetoric, manipulation, and social pressure.”
Despite the parental controls put in place by her mother, “predators” were still able to contact Audree, according to the suit.
“This is not about a minor lapse in safety, it’s about a company that gives pedophiles powerful tools to prey on innocent and unsuspecting kids,” said Seitz’s lawyer, Alexandra Walsh. “The trauma that results is horrific, from grooming, to exploitation, to actual assault. In this case, a child lost her life. This needs to stop.”
Seitz claims fraudulent concealment, negligent misrepresentation, failure to warn, unreasonable design and wrongful death.
