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Arnold Castillo, known under the pseudonyms "doctorRofatnik" and "Doc", received 15 years in prison for transporting an underage girl across the border for the purpose of exploitation. The case revealed serious problems in ensuring the safety of children on the Roblox platform, one of the most popular gaming platforms for children and teenagers. About the history of the scandalous case told the publication Bloomberg.
Castillo created the popular game Sonic Eclipse Online, which became a hit in the world of Roblox. On the platform, where millions of children play every day, players could transform into characters from the game Sonic the Hedgehog. "Doc" claimed to be one of the highest paid developers on Roblox, and actively communicated with his audience on the Discord platform, creating an image of a successful and charismatic game developer.
But there was a dark side to this image. 22-year-old Castillo joked about topics inappropriate for children's audiences, and behaved provocatively, which attracted the attention of children and teenagers. When in September 2020, one of the players of Sonic Eclipse posted screenshots of the correspondence of "Doc" with an underage girl, it became clear that his behavior was out of bounds. In the messages, "Doc" wrote obscenities and joked that his actions could lead him to jail.
As a result of the publication of the messages, Castillo's account was blocked, but he managed to transfer the rights to the game to his friend and continued his activities under a different name. When Roblox Corporation became aware of the messages, the company continued to search for and block any alternative Castillo accounts.
At the same time, Sonic Eclipse continued to exist, since the game itself did not pose any security problems. It is also reported that DoctorRofatnik cashed out a total of $41,000 in developer fees for the first 8 months of 2020.
Before Castillo was wanted by the FBI, he was hunted by a group of gamers. They ridiculed Doc for ignoring sexual terms in the chat and obscene avatars. By 2020, many people had lost faith that Roblox could prevent such behavior, so players began to control the order themselves.
The leader of the group of gamers was Ben Simon, who is currently 27 years old. Simon broadcasts about Roblox on YouTube with 1.2 million subscribers. In September 2020, Simon started receiving messages from gamers who wanted to punish Doc. After conducting their own investigation and analysis of social networks, the players found out Castillo's real name and city of residence. The players appealed to law enforcement agencies, but the police refused to open a case due to insufficient evidence.
In another case, a 22-year-old Japanese gamer wrote to the vice president of product development at Sega Sammy Holdings Inc, which owns trademarks related to Sonic the Hedgehog. According to the girl, the iconic Sega hedgehog was misappropriated by Castillo. Sega subsequently filed a copyright infringement notice with Roblox, and the Sonic Eclipse game was shut down at the end of 2021.
In 2022, Castillo was arrested by the FBI after a 15-year-old Indiana girl went missing. The girl was found in Castillo's home in New Jersey, and it turned out that he used various aliases to attract minors.
The Roblox platform, despite its security efforts, has proven vulnerable to such abuse. The company says it is implementing new security measures and actively fighting such violations. However, cases like Castillo's show that it is extremely difficult to deal with criminals in the online space.
It is noted that as the Roblox business expanded, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received more reports of cases of alleged sexual exploitation of children.
The incident sparked a wave of discussions about the need to strengthen security measures on gaming platforms and increase the responsibility of developers. Parents and child safety experts have expressed concern that platforms like Roblox should pay more attention to protecting their users.
Arnold Castillo, who is now in a federal prison in New York state, admits his mistakes and expresses regret for what he did. He said that he used online identities to create an image that was very different from his real life, and that he now understands how wrong his actions were.
• Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-roblox-pedophile-problem/
Castillo created the popular game Sonic Eclipse Online, which became a hit in the world of Roblox. On the platform, where millions of children play every day, players could transform into characters from the game Sonic the Hedgehog. "Doc" claimed to be one of the highest paid developers on Roblox, and actively communicated with his audience on the Discord platform, creating an image of a successful and charismatic game developer.
But there was a dark side to this image. 22-year-old Castillo joked about topics inappropriate for children's audiences, and behaved provocatively, which attracted the attention of children and teenagers. When in September 2020, one of the players of Sonic Eclipse posted screenshots of the correspondence of "Doc" with an underage girl, it became clear that his behavior was out of bounds. In the messages, "Doc" wrote obscenities and joked that his actions could lead him to jail.
As a result of the publication of the messages, Castillo's account was blocked, but he managed to transfer the rights to the game to his friend and continued his activities under a different name. When Roblox Corporation became aware of the messages, the company continued to search for and block any alternative Castillo accounts.
At the same time, Sonic Eclipse continued to exist, since the game itself did not pose any security problems. It is also reported that DoctorRofatnik cashed out a total of $41,000 in developer fees for the first 8 months of 2020.
Before Castillo was wanted by the FBI, he was hunted by a group of gamers. They ridiculed Doc for ignoring sexual terms in the chat and obscene avatars. By 2020, many people had lost faith that Roblox could prevent such behavior, so players began to control the order themselves.
The leader of the group of gamers was Ben Simon, who is currently 27 years old. Simon broadcasts about Roblox on YouTube with 1.2 million subscribers. In September 2020, Simon started receiving messages from gamers who wanted to punish Doc. After conducting their own investigation and analysis of social networks, the players found out Castillo's real name and city of residence. The players appealed to law enforcement agencies, but the police refused to open a case due to insufficient evidence.
In another case, a 22-year-old Japanese gamer wrote to the vice president of product development at Sega Sammy Holdings Inc, which owns trademarks related to Sonic the Hedgehog. According to the girl, the iconic Sega hedgehog was misappropriated by Castillo. Sega subsequently filed a copyright infringement notice with Roblox, and the Sonic Eclipse game was shut down at the end of 2021.
In 2022, Castillo was arrested by the FBI after a 15-year-old Indiana girl went missing. The girl was found in Castillo's home in New Jersey, and it turned out that he used various aliases to attract minors.
The Roblox platform, despite its security efforts, has proven vulnerable to such abuse. The company says it is implementing new security measures and actively fighting such violations. However, cases like Castillo's show that it is extremely difficult to deal with criminals in the online space.
It is noted that as the Roblox business expanded, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received more reports of cases of alleged sexual exploitation of children.
The incident sparked a wave of discussions about the need to strengthen security measures on gaming platforms and increase the responsibility of developers. Parents and child safety experts have expressed concern that platforms like Roblox should pay more attention to protecting their users.
Arnold Castillo, who is now in a federal prison in New York state, admits his mistakes and expresses regret for what he did. He said that he used online identities to create an image that was very different from his real life, and that he now understands how wrong his actions were.
• Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-roblox-pedophile-problem/
