Roblox argues player who took her own life waived right to sue when she was eight years old

Roblox has allegedly attempted to get a wrongful death suit dismissed by arguing that the victim waived their right to sue the company when they were just eight years old. The mother of Audree Heine, who took her own life when she was just 13 years old, claimed that the game was a “harmful and violent influence” on her daughter.

Heine’s mother, Jamie Steitz, filed the wrongful death suit in October 2025, reports the Courier Journal. The mother claimed that Audree was able to join a community on Roblox that glorified school shooters despite parental controls apparently put in place to protect her. 

The response from the multi-billion-dollar Roblox Corporation was to argue that the lawsuit should be dismissed and instead go to arbitration, as Audree Heine agreed to the terms and conditions when she was eight.

Lawyers for the company wrote in a motion that “Roblox made the Terms plain and Audree repeatedly manifested her assent, as courts have routinely held in examining similar agreements and as the one at issue here.”

The Roblox terms and conditions favor arbitration

Agreeing to the terms and conditions for Roblox means that any claims brought against the company must go through a “secret arbitration process,” meaning that the details of the case would be kept from the public. Overall, there is much less transparency, and as the case would proceed outside the courts, there are concerns over whether justice would be served.

The case bears some resemblance to a case from 2024, when a woman had a fatal allergic reaction at a Disney resort, only for lawyers to argue that her signing up to a Disney+ trial meant that her husband could not sue.

In this case, Audree Heine’s mother claimed that her daughter would not have understood what she was agreeing to: “She was a child, she didn’t understand arbitration,” she stated. “She didn’t understand contracts. She didn’t understand what the little box could mean years later. But now they want a court to treat that click as though an 8-year-old knowingly negotiated away her right to have these issues heard. It’s insulting.”

Seitz had apparently set up parental controls, but other users were still able to “exploit Audree’s emotional vulnerabilities with violent rhetoric, manipulation, and social pressure.” She was also allegedly able to join a community centered around the Columbine shooting.

This is just one of many cases the Roblox corporation is facing, and one case may have already set a precedent when it comes to arbitration. According to anapolweiss.com, a child exploitation lawsuit from another family saw the California Supreme Court overturn the forced arbitration in that case. Whether or not the same thing is possible in Audree Heine’s case remains to be seen.