(RNS) — One of the world’s most popular video games said it is investigating reported anti-Muslim and hateful content on its platform, after it received a letter from the Maryland office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations this week. 

The letter alleges that Roblox, which boasts over 100 million average daily users, has exposed children to racist and blasphemous statements through gaming chats and user-generated content. 

“There is hateful and discriminatory rhetoric that is being put into these spaces that children are consuming,” CAIR Maryland Director Zainab Chaudry told Religion News Service on Thursday (Oct. 16). “It is normalizing this as fun and trendy and cool, but it ends up hurting marginalized communities and creating an unsafe environment for them.”

Chaudry said content in the gaming platform mocking God and glorifying violence against Palestinians stems from what is known as “Italian brain rot,” a series of viral memes that surged in popularity this year depicting absurd AI-generated images and videos with pseudo-Italian narration. The unrealistic characters include Tralalero Tralala, a shark wearing blue Nike shoes, and Bombardiro Crocodilo, a military bomber with the head of a crocodile that sparked outrage for mocking the killing of children in Gaza.

The trend has saturated social media, made its way into classrooms and filled some virtual worlds created by users on Roblox. Chaudry said she learned about the content in question from parents and a teacher in Maryland who showed her examples.  

Roblox is currently facing over a dozen lawsuits nationwide alleging inappropriate content on its games. A complaint brought by Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman on Oct. 7 alleges “that grossly inappropriate, sexually explicit, and dangerous experiences pervade Roblox” and that the gaming platform’s protections are inadequate.

In a statement to RNS, a Roblox spokesperson said the platform’s strict community standards do not allow users to discriminate, promote hate or mock individuals or groups on the basis of religion. The company said it uses a combination of AI detection, proactive monitoring and a 24/7 team of thousands of moderators to identify and remove content that violates standards. 

“We take reports of discriminatory content extremely seriously and investigate them thoroughly,” the spokesperson said. 

A Roblox corporate representative responded to CAIR Maryland’s letter within hours, which Chaudry said is a hopeful sign the company is taking the concerns seriously. 

“We welcome dialogue with advocacy organizations like CAIR and other community groups to ensure our platform remains safe, inclusive, and welcoming for all users,” the Roblox spokesperson told RNS via email.  

However, Rachel Franz, the program director for Young Children Thrive Offline at the nonprofit Fairplay, which advocates for children’s online safety, said more regulation is needed to ensure Roblox’s “exploitative business practices come to an end.”

“Roblox should bake safety into its design to help prevent hate speech in the first place, rather than address it after high-profile cases have been brought to their attention,” Franz said. 

While little data exists about Islamophobia in video games, anti-Muslim discrimination has surged in recent years. Muslim Americans report experiencing significantly more discrimination than other religious groups, according to a 2024 poll from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. 

“Online hate feels just as real to children as in-person hate does, especially in games like Roblox where young people play as custom avatars,” Franz said.