PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. — An 18-year-old Pembroke Pines man is facing a felony child solicitation charge after he was accused of engaging in lewd conduct with children on the online game Roblox.
According to an arrest report from the Pembroke Pines Police Department, authorities received a tip from Roblox “concerning the online solicitation of a minor” in November 2025, the same month the platform announced new age verification measures designed to keep children from chatting with adults, CNN reported.
The report states that Roblox identified Manuel Eduardo Rodriguez as “enticing children to video chat while exposing the child’s genital(s) in exchange for Robux,” which is a form of currency used within the application.
The report doesn’t state how many alleged victims there were or their ages. Police arrested Rodriguez on Wednesday.
An alleged confession was redacted from the publicly-released report.
Roblox has been the subject of lawsuits over child safety issues on its platform, including one from a Miami-Dade mother in which she accused it ― and the app Discord ― of enabling a pedophile to seduce her 11-year-old daughter online and then rape her.
In the article regarding the lawsuit from state attorneys general and its new age verification measures, a Roblox spokesperson told CNN that the company’s “priority is safety and civility” and it aims to provide “a safe, positive, age-appropriate experience for everybody.”
Records show Rodriguez was being held in the Broward Main Jail on a $10,000 bond as of Thursday evening.
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