The mother of a 15-year-old California boy who took his own life is now suing Roblox and Discord over his death, alleging her son was groomed and coerced to send explicit images on the apps.

Rebecca Dallas filed the lawsuit Friday in San Francisco County Superior Court accusing the companies of “recklessly and deceptively operating their business in a way that led to the sexual exploitation and suicide” of Ethan Dallas.

Ethan was a “bright, imaginative boy who loved gaming, streaming and interacting with friends online,” the lawsuit states. He started playing on the online gaming platform Roblox around the age of 9, with his parents’ approval and with parental controls in place. When he was 12, he was targeted by “an adult sex predator” who posed as a child on Roblox and befriended Ethan, attorneys for Rebecca Dallas said in a statement.

What started out as innocent conversation “gradually escalated to sexual topics and explicit exchanges,” the complaint says.

After a while, the man encouraged Ethan to turn off parental controls and move their conversations to Discord, the lawyers said.

On Discord, the man “increasingly demanded explicit photographs and videos” and threatened Ethan that he’d post or share the images. Ethan complied out of fear, the complaint says.

“Tragically, Ethan was permanently harmed and haunted by these experiences, and he died by suicide at the age of 15,” the complaint said. He died in April 2024, according to an online obituary.

The lawsuit accuses Roblox and Discord of wrongful death, fraudulent concealment and misrepresentations, negligent misrepresentation, and strict liability.

It argues that had Roblox and Discord taken steps to screen users before allowing them on apps, or implemented age and identity verification and other safety measures, “Ethan would have never interacted with this predator, never suffered he harm that he did, and never died by suicide.”

Apps not safe for kids, suit says

Dallas, of San Diego County, thought both platforms were safe for her son to use to communicate with friends while gaming, given how the apps marketed themselves and the parental controls she set, the suit contended.

Roblox is used daily by 111 million people, according to its website, offering a variety of games, obstacle courses, and the ability to chat with other users. It is free to make an account and there is no age minimum, nor required age verification.

Discord, launched in 2015, is a communications platform commonly used by gamers who want to chat or video chat while playing video games. The suit said that the app doesn’t verify age or identity.

The suit claims Roblox allowed Ethan to turn off the parental controls and Discord allowed him to create an account and communicate with adults without any parental oversight. It said that while Roblox states children must have parental permission to sign up, “nothing prevents them from creating their own accounts and playing on Roblox.”

The suit alleges the two apps misrepresented safety on their platforms, saying the design of the apps “makes children easy prey for pedophiles” due to a lack of safeguards and predator screening.

After Ethan’s tragic death, his family learned from law enforcement that the man who groomed him had been arrested in Florida “for sexually exploiting other children through Defendants’ apps,” the complaint said.

Today, Roblox’s default settings do not allow adults to directly message children under the age of 13, but children can still create accounts with fake birth dates giving them full access to direct-messaging options, the complaint said.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss. While we cannot comment on claims raised in litigation, we always strive to hold ourselves to the highest safety standard,” a spokesperson for Roblox told NBC News.

Roblox said it is designed with “rigorous built in safety features” and is “continually innovating new safety features — over 100 this year alone — that protect our users and empower parents and caregivers with greater control and visibility.”

Safety efforts include processes to detect and act on problematic behaviors and 24/7 human moderation. Roblox added that the company partners with law enforcement and leading child safety and mental health organizations worldwide to combat the sexual exploitation of children.

While Discord has settings to keep minors safe such as automatically scanning messages for explicit images and videos, the suit said Discord is “overflowing with sexually explicit images and videos involving children, including anime and child sex abuse material.”

Discord said it doesn’t comment on legal matters but said the platform is “deeply committed to safety.”

“We require all users to be at least 13 to use our platform. We use a combination of advanced technology and trained safety teams to proactively find and remove content that violates our policies,” a spokesperson said. “We maintain strong systems to prevent the spread of sexual exploitation and grooming on our platform and also work with other technology companies and safety organizations to improve online safety across the internet.”

Other allegations against Roblox, Discord

Anapol Weiss, the firm that filed Dallas’ suit, noted this is the ninth lawsuit it has filed in connection with allegations that children were groomed, exploited or assaulted after contact on Roblox or related platforms.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation in 2024 complied a “Dirty Dozen” list of mainstream entitles it says facilitate, enable and profit from sexual abuse and exploitation. It included Discord, saying “this platform is popular with predators seeking to groom kids and with creeps looking to create, trade or find sexually abusive content of children and unsuspecting adults,” and Roblox, saying children are exposed to sex-themed games and exposed to predators.

An NBC News investigation in 2023 found 35 cases over the six years prior in which adults were prosecuted on charges of kidnapping, grooming or sexual assault that allegedly involved communications on Discord.

In August, Louisiana’s top prosecutor sued Roblox, alleging that its failure to implement strong safety protocols for children has made it “the perfect place for pedophiles.”

“This case lays bare the devastating consequences when billion-dollar platforms knowingly design environments that enable predators to prey on vulnerable children,” said Alexandra Walsh, a partner at Anapol Weiss. “These companies are raking in billions. Children are paying the price.”

Dallas seeks a jury trial and compensatory damages.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988, or go to 988lifeline.org, to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.

Week 3 was expected to be relatively quiet, but it delivered several heavyweight clashes. No. 6 Georgia outlasted No. 15 Tennessee in one of the weekend’s marquee wins, while Georgia Tech upset No. 12 Clemson.

The slate also turned into a showcase for rising quarterbacks. Tennessee’s Joey Aguilar impressed in his first SEC start, Michigan’s Bryce Underwood carried the offense with his arm and legs, Alabama’s Ty Simpson extended his hot start and Houston’s Conner Weigman posted a career performance against Colorado.

The night schedule still features No. 8 Notre Dame hosting No. 16 Texas A&M, No. 3 LSU trying to fend off Florida, No. 17 Ole Miss locked in a shootout with Arkansas, and No. 11 South Carolina battling Vanderbilt.

Here are the biggest winners and losers from the early slate of Week 3 college football.

Winner: Georgia

Kirby Smart will have plenty to say to his defense after giving up 496 total yards — including 371 through the air  to Joey Aguilar — in No. 6 Georgia’s 44-41 overtime win over No. 15 Tennessee. But the Bulldogs showed championship resolve in withstanding a back-and-forth game at Neyland Stadium, one of the nation’s rowdiest venues.

After a sluggish start, quarterback Gunner Stockton settled in and justified the staff’s confidence. The junior threw for 304 yards and two touchdowns. He also added a rushing score to keep Georgia on track. The defense delivered in overtime, holding the Vols to a 42-yard field goal.

It took some fortunate breaks for the Bulldogs to survive their trip to Knoxville, but passing such an early test bodes well for their title hopes. For Tennessee, the missed opportunity could sting for years.

Loser: Clemson

Before the season, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney told reporters he believed his program could be the first to post a 16-0 record in the expanded College Football Playoff era. That dream is already on hold after a stunning 24-21 loss to Georgia Tech — the Tigers’ first to the Yellow Jackets since 2014.

Clemson has struggled in nearly every phase during its 1-2 start, also the program’s first since 2014. Georgia Tech piled up 147 yards rushing — including 103 from quarterback Haynes King — while Cade Klubnik managed just 207 yards passing for the Tigers.

ESPN’s David Hale highlighted a brutal trend: Clemson is two plays — a 58-yard touchdown vs. Pitt and a 57-yard field goal vs. SMU — from being 1-7 in its last eight games against Power Four opponents. The Tigers haven’t beaten a power-conference foe by double digits in 11 months.

The whispers of a Clemson resurgence have been premature. Right now, the Tigers look cooked.

Winner: West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez

Nearly 20 years ago, Rich Rodriguez suffered one of the most devastating losses of the 21st Century. His West Virginia team was one win away from playing for a BCS National Championship, but lost 13-9 against hated rival Pittsburgh — a mediocre 5-7 team. After the game, Rodriguez abandoned West Virginia (his home state program) for Michigan, making him a public enemy in the state.  

Nearly two decades later, Rodriguez got his revenge in his second stint with the program. West Virginia went down 24-14 in the fourth quarter and had to score 10 points in the final 5:03 just to force overtime. After scoring a touchdown to open overtime, West Virginia’s defense came alive to deliver the program one of its biggest wins of the last five years. They’re drinking the RichRod Kool Aid again in Morgantown. 

Winner: Alabama QB Ty Simpson

Ty Simpson was the face of No. 19 Alabama’s frustrating season-opening loss to Florida State after completing just over half his passes. Two weeks later, he’s leading the Tide’s resurgence.

The junior was nearly flawless in a 38-14 rout of Wisconsin, completing 24 of 29 passes for 382 yards and four touchdowns while connecting with six different receivers. Dating back to the previous win over ULM, Simpson put together a stretch where he completed 31 of 32 passes for 493 yards and six scores across just over six quarters.

Most importantly, he’s getting the ball out quicker and giving his playmakers room to thrive. Alabama still has work to do to climb back into the CFP picture, but Simpson is starting to look like a star.

There are structural flaws all over Kansas State’s roster during its historically terrible 1-3 start, but Johnson’s performance was truly abysmal in the team’s loss to Arizona. Johnson completed a paltry 13 of 29 passes for 88 yards, and was credited with minus-16 yards rushing as Kansas State became the first offense to record fewer than 200 yards against Arizona since 2021 California. 

Every frustration with Johnson as a passer showed up in the final minutes with a chance to win the game. Johnson read a pull poorly to put Kansas State behind the chains and then threw a wobbly slant that was dropped. When Kansas State got it back, he threw a huge four-yard pass to Jayce Brown, but whiffed on three of his final four passes to cost Kansas State the game. He finished averaging an absurd 3.0 yards per pass attempt. 

By the way, the 1-3 start is the program’s worst since 1989. That was the first year of the Bill Snyder era, when Kansas State was considering shutting down its football program. That’s probably not on the table, but Chris Klieman’s staff is reaching the danger zone. 

I’m tired of talking about UCLA stinking, so let’s give the Lobos all the flowers. New Mexico walked into the historic Rose Bowl and obliterated UCLA to the tune of 35-10, a dominant victory for Jason Eck’s upstart program. There was nothing special about how they did it, Eck’s offense simply rushed for 298 physical yards against a Power Four defense, with Weber State transfer Damon Bankston fielding 154 of the yards. 

New Mexico is a difficult place to win, and seemed to be behind the 8-ball after dynamic quarterback Devon Dampier transferred to Utah. Instead, the Lobos are somehow off to a magical start. Welcome to the Mountain West championship race, Mr. Eck. 

The Witcher: Season 4 will premiere on Netflix on October 30, the streamer announced Saturday during the Canelo vs. Crawford fight. New key art, photos and the first clip featuring Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia were also released.

The action-packed clip shows Geralt battling a nightwraith. The new photos, which can be seen in the slideshow below, give us our first official look at Laurence Fishburne as Regis.

The Continent awaits. Here’s your exclusive first clip of Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher Season 4. Returns 30th October, only on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/CTvryeUmRd

— The Witcher (@witchernetflix) September 14, 2025

Liam Hemsworth, of course, replaced Henry Cavill, who left the show at the end of Season 3. Cavill’s Geralt was last seen walking off into the woods with sidekicks Jaskier (Joey Batey) and Milva (Meng’er Zhang).

“This is the beginning of a two-season journey for our family to finally reunite and be together — hopefully forever,” The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt told Tudum.com about Season 4.

The Witcher: Season 4 Images