This article is the first in the Addictive Game Series, which explores popular games in the news for harming players. Each article covers one game, why it can be hard to put down, and what to do if playing becomes a problem. Links to each new article will be added at the end of this post as they are published.
The Headlines Are Rare. The Pattern Is Not.
Every few years, a story circulates about a gamer who died after playing for days without stopping. Most of these stories are more than a decade old, and they tend to involve young men in internet cafés in Taiwan, China, or South Korea, playing titles like Diablo III, World of Warcraft, or StarCraft.
A team of researchers gathered these cases into the first systematic review of the subject. They identified 24 cases, all but one of them male, ranging in age from 11 to 40, and more than half came from Southeast Asia. In 18 of the cases, the player had been gaming for roughly a day or longer with very little rest. The researchers concluded that deaths like these are most likely very rare (Kuperczko et al., 2022).
I want to be clear about that, because fear doesn’t help families make good decisions. The overwhelming majority of people who play games will never be physically endangered by them.
What those extreme cases do show, though, is how powerful a game can become when it meets a need in someone’s life. That’s the real subject of this series.
In my practice, I rarely see people who are hooked on a game simply because it’s fun. They’re hooked because the game gives them something they aren’t getting elsewhere. It might be friendship, a sense of being good at something, control over their own world, or relief from stress, loneliness, or boredom. When a game fills that gap well enough, anyone can struggle to step away: a child, a teenager, or an adult with a career and a mortgage.
That’s why each article in this series asks the same question: what need is this game meeting, and how does its design keep a player coming back to it?
We start with Roblox.
What Roblox Is, and Who Plays It
Roblox isn’t really one game. It’s a platform where users build and share their own games, called “experiences,” and millions of them are available at no cost. Players create an avatar, join friends, chat, and move between experiences as easily as switching channels.
The scale is enormous. In a late-2025 regulatory filing, Roblox reported an average of 151.5 million daily active users, and the company said 40% of its daily users in 2024 were under 13 (Stempel, 2025). For many kids, Roblox isn’t something they play. It’s where their friends are.
Why Roblox Is in the News
Most of the recent headlines about Roblox concern child safety rather than addiction, and that distinction matters.
In 2025, the mother of a California teen named Ethan Dallas filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Roblox and Discord. The suit alleges that when Ethan was 12, an adult posing as a child befriended him on Roblox, and that their conversations later moved to Discord, where he was pressured into sending explicit images. Ethan died by suicide at 15 (Lenthang M, Mullen A, 2025). Ethan was autistic, and according to his family’s attorneys, he had struggled with bullying and used Roblox as a social outlet. Roblox said it was deeply saddened by the loss, declined to comment on the litigation claims, and said it strives to hold itself to the highest safety standards (Mass, J, 2025).
State governments have also taken action. In November 2025, Texas became the third state to sue Roblox, after Kentucky and Louisiana, alleging that the company has failed to protect children and misled parents about the platform’s risks (Office of the Attorney General of Texas, 2025). Roblox has responded that it has strong protocols to remove bad actors, along with tools that let parents restrict how their children communicate and what content they can access (Stempel, 2025).
Separately, Roblox is named in lawsuits alleging that it was designed to be addictive, often alongside Fortnite and Minecraft. In December 2025, a federal judicial panel declined for the second time to combine these cases into a single proceeding (Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, 2025). These are allegations, and none of the cases have reached a verdict. Still, they reflect what many parents are seeing at home.
As an autistic clinician, Ethan’s story is especially hard to read. The same thing that made Roblox valuable to him, a place to connect when connecting in person was difficult, is what made him vulnerable. That’s the double edge this article is about.
Why Kids Can’t Stop Playing: What Roblox Gets Right About Their Needs
It meets the need for belonging. For many kids and teens, Roblox is the social hub. Logging off can feel like leaving the party while everyone else stays. For young people who struggle socially, including many on the autism spectrum, it may be the easiest place they’ve ever found to make friends. That is a real benefit, and it’s also why the pull is so strong.
It never ends. Most traditional games have a final level. Roblox has an effectively endless supply of new experiences, so there’s never a natural stopping point.
Progress keeps building. Many popular experiences use levels, collections, upgrades, and daily rewards to encourage daily returns. Some continue to progress while the player is away, which creates a steady urge to check in.
Scarcity drives urgency. Limited-time events and items create a fear of missing out. A child who skips a day may feel they’ve lost something permanently.
Spending feels abstract. Purchases are made with Robux, a virtual currency. Once real money has been converted into Robux, it becomes easy to lose track of how much has actually been spent.
The avatar becomes part of identity. Kids invest time and money in how they look online, and their avatar can affect how peers treat them.
Researchers who study game motivation describe three core psychological needs games can satisfy: competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Przybylski et al., 2010). Put simply, Roblox is very good at helping young people feel capable, in control, and connected, and very good at making it hard to walk away.
Signs That Play Has Become a Problem
The World Health Organization recognizes gaming disorder as a diagnosable condition. It isn’t defined by hours alone. The central warning signs are (World Health Organization, 2020):
- Loss of control: your child can’t stop when they agree to, or play keeps expanding despite limits.
- Gaming comes first: homework, sleep, meals, family time, and other interests are pushed aside.
- Play continues despite harm: grades, friendships, mood, or health are suffering, and the gaming continues anyway.
Other signs I watch for include intense anger or distress when play is interrupted, lost sleep, unexplained charges or requests for gift cards, and secrecy about who they’re talking to.
With Roblox specifically, safety signs matter as much as addiction signs. Be concerned if your child becomes secretive about a particular online friend, receives gifts of Robux or items from someone, turns off parental controls, or is asked to move conversations to another app. Those are common grooming patterns, and they call for a calm, immediate conversation.
What Parents Can Do
Use the tools Roblox now provides. Roblox now requires an age check before users can chat. Players can complete it with a face scan, or with a government ID if they’re 13 or older, and parents can verify a child’s age through a linked parent account. Once checked, users can generally chat only with people in a similar age group (McConvey, 2026; Roblox Corporation). Roblox itself advises parents to complete the check on their own account first, so they don’t accidentally complete it for their child. That matters, because a parent’s face on a child’s account can place the child in an adult group.
Link your account to your child’s to set daily screen time limits, monthly spending limits, and purchase notifications. These controls change as your child grows. In most regions, parents manage all settings only through age 12, some chat and game controls through 15, and teens 13 and older can set their own time limits (Roblox Corporation). For teens, that makes the conversation more important than the settings. Roblox itself says no system is foolproof, and grooming can still move to other apps.
Keep play in shared spaces. Devices in bedrooms, especially at night, make both overuse and unsafe contact much more likely.
Talk before you take away. Suddenly removing the game from a child who depends on it for friendship can feel like losing their social world. Ask what they enjoy about Roblox and who they play with. Those answers tell you what need the game is meeting.
Replace the need, not just the screen. If Roblox is where your child finds friends, help them build connection offline too, such as clubs, structured activities, or interest-based groups. This is especially important for autistic kids and teens, who often do best in groups built around a shared interest.
Reduce gradually and predictably. Clear, consistent limits with advance warnings (“ten minutes left”) work better than arguments at the moment you want them to stop.
Keep shame out of it. A child who fears punishment won’t tell you when something goes wrong online. Make sure they know they can come to you, even if they broke a rule, and they won’t be in trouble for reporting something frightening.
Know when to get help. A formal diagnosis of gaming disorder generally requires a pattern lasting about a year. You don’t need to wait that long to get help, though. If limits aren’t working, if gaming is tied to depression, anxiety, or withdrawal from family, or if you’re seeing warning signs of online exploitation, talk to a professional who understands gaming and internet addiction.
Getting Support
I work with teens and adults across Texas through teletherapy, specializing in internet and gaming addiction and high-functioning autism. If your teen is struggling with Roblox or any other game, schedule a consultation.
Not sure whether it’s a phase or a problem? Try the parent version of my Internet Addiction Assessment.
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
The Addictive Game Series
- Roblox (you are here)
- Fortnite (coming soon)
- Counter-Strike 2 (coming soon)
- Genshin Impact (coming soon)
- Minecraft (coming soon)
- Call of Duty (coming soon)
References
Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. (2025, December 10). Order denying transfer (MDL No. 3168). https://www.jpml.uscourts.gov/sites/jpml/files/MDL-3168-Order_Denying_Transfer-12-25.pdf
Kuperczko, D., Kenyeres, P., Darnai, G., Kovacs, N., & Janszky, J. (2022). Sudden gamer death: Non-violent death cases linked to playing video games. BMC Psychiatry, 22(1), Article number 824. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04373-5
McConvey, J. R. (2026, January 8). Roblox rolls out facial age estimation for chat access globally. Biometric Update. https://www.biometricupdate.com/202601/roblox-rolls-out-facial-age-estimation-for-chat-access-globally
Lenthang, M., Mullen A. (2025, September 13). Roblox, Discord sued after 15-year-old boy was allegedly groomed online before he died by suicide https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/roblox-discord-sued-15-year-old-boy-was-allegedly-groomed-online-died-rcna231049
Office of the Attorney General of Texas. (2025, November 6). Attorney General Ken Paxton sues Roblox for putting pixel pedophiles and profits over the safety of Texas children [Press release]. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-roblox-putting-pixel-pedophiles-and-profits-over-safety-texas
Przybylski, A. K., Rigby, C. S., & Ryan, R. M. (2010). A motivational model of video game engagement. Review of General Psychology, 14(2), 154–166. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019440
Roblox Corporation. (n.d.-a). About our secure age checks. Retrieved September 16, 2026, from https://about.roblox.com/age-estimation
Roblox Corporation. (n.d.-b). Managing screen time. Roblox Support. Retrieved September 16, 2026, from https://en.help.roblox.com/hc/en-us/articles/30428328969492-Managing-Screen-Time
Roblox Corporation. (n.d.-c). Parental controls. Retrieved September 16, 2026, from https://about.roblox.com/parental-controls
Stempel, J. (2025, November 6). Texas sues Roblox for allegedly concealing safety concerns from parents. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/texas-sues-roblox-allegedly-concealing-safety-concerns-parents-2025-11-06/
Mass, J. (2025, September 12). Roblox ‘saddened’ amid wrongful death lawsuit over teenager’s suicide https://variety.com/2025/gaming/news/roblox-death-lawsuit-teenager-suicide-1236516206/
World Health Organization. (2020, October 22). Addictive behaviours: Gaming disorder. https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/gaming-disorder
- Why Kids Can’t Stop Playing Roblox — and What Parents Can Do About It - September 16, 2026
- What the Texas App Store Law Changes for Parents - September 2, 2026
- Thirty Days Will Not Cure You - August 26, 2026
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