On January 23, a New York outlet revealed how a 15-year-old boy had been missing for two weeks after heading out on January 9th to meet a person he allegedly met playing Roblox. In the article, it was stated that Thomas Medlin of St. James had disappeared after school and boarded a train to Grand Central Terminal in the city.
In an interview, Medlin’s mother revealed how detectives had suggested her son had met someone while playing Roblox and was planning meet someone in New York City.
Earlier today, the Roblox team posted a message on social media insisting it was working with law enforcement to assist in locating Medlin.
Roblox Investigates Disappearance of Child After Claims
In the post penned by the Roblox team earlier today, it was written:
We are deeply concerned about a report involving a missing child, Thomas Medlin, in New York, and our thoughts are with him and his family.
When we learned that one of our users was missing, we followed our standard process and immediately began an investigation, searched for any previous law enforcement inquiries, and reached out to law enforcement to offer any support in their investigation. After a thorough review, here is what we have found:
- No attempts to direct him to an off-platform communication method
- No sharing of off-platform contact information, including usernames, phone numbers or other communication methods
- All chat content was consistent with typical in-game discussions
- No indication that he used voice chat
We are holding Thomas and his family in our hearts as we hope for his safe return.We will continue to provide our full support to law enforcement throughout their investigation.
We are committed to safety; for anyone interested in learning more about the safeguards Roblox has in place and how to talk to kids about internet safety please visit http://roblox.com/safetycenter.
The original article from Long Island News 12 (spotted by Dexerto) mentions how the behaviour was ‘completely out of character’ for the boy, and that his family and friends have been ‘searching for Thomas nearly every day.’
In the last couple of years, Roblox has been repeatedly rocked by controversies and claims that the platform doesn’t do enough to protect children, despite the app’s leadership team arguing the contrary.
Last August, a petition surfaced calling for the CEO’s resignation because of the slew of complaints surfacing regarding child safety. In ten days, that petition gathered 110,000 signatures. It now has more than 300,000. Bizarrely, that petition popped up shortly after the CEO predicted that Roblox could one day facilitate dating interactions.
Even though Roblox has made strides in player protection technology, some regulatory bodies have tried to tackle the platform legally. In August 2025, the state of Louisiana sued Roblox for child safety concerns, prompting a 10% stock value drop.
Do you think Roblox has an inherent problem with child safety? Let us know your concerns on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
Federal government needs to get involved this is too often an occurrence with Roblox and Amazon does not terminate agreements with them, Discord, or Reddit for AWS but has with others such as Parler for way less.
Sell Roblox to Larry Ellison the current leadership is weird and horrible