Young people are protesting ICE and reenacting immigration raids in online gaming platform Roblox

Children on Roblox Stage Virtual ICE Raids and Protests, Reflecting Real-World Immigration Tensions

Roblox, the massively popular online gaming platform that attracts millions of children and teenagers, has become an unexpected venue for young users to engage with real-world immigration issues. Some players are roleplaying as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers conducting raids, while others are organizing virtual protests against these actions.

Videos showing these virtual raids and demonstrations have garnered millions of views on TikTok in recent weeks. Much of this activity occurs within Brookhaven, one of Roblox’s most popular roleplaying environments, where users can create and interact in a simulated town setting.

This digital reflection of immigration enforcement isn’t entirely new. Similar gameplay patterns emerged last summer during the “No Kings” protests across the United States, which were largely responding to increased immigration enforcement activities. The current resurgence appears linked to recent ICE operations in Minnesota that have faced significant public resistance.

The platform, which bills itself as the “ultimate virtual universe” where users can “be anything you can imagine,” has become a digital canvas where young people process and respond to news they’re encountering in the real world. In these virtual protests, avatars hold signs with messages like “We hate ICE,” carefully avoiding expletives which are prohibited on the platform.

Giovanni Ramos, an assistant professor of clinical science at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests these virtual protests may serve a positive function. “They are creating community and connecting with people who actually are going through similar things, who might understand their emotional experiences,” Ramos explained. This form of digital expression could provide an outlet for children processing complex social issues.

However, the roleplaying of raids raises more significant concerns. Such activities could “minimize the emotional impact that immigrant youth are experiencing by being exposed to this chronic stressor,” according to Ramos. For children from immigrant families or communities affected by ICE operations, seeing these events portrayed as entertainment could be particularly harmful.

Ramos notes that in many cases, children taking on ICE officer roles might simply be exploring what they’re encountering in news or overhearing from adults. “It could be youth exploring what they’re seeing in the news or what they hear adults talking about at home and trying to make sense of those experiences,” he said.

A Roblox spokesperson confirmed on Friday that these raid reenactments violate the platform’s community standards. The company prohibits content that “recreates specific real-world sensitive events, mocks the victims of such events, supports, glorifies, or promotes the perpetrators or outcome of such events or capitalizes on these events for commercial purposes.”

The company employs a multi-layered moderation approach, utilizing human reviewers, user reports, and AI technology to enforce its standards. “No system is perfect, but we work to strengthen our user protections every day,” the spokesperson stated, encouraging users to report content that violates community guidelines.

The phenomenon highlights the increasingly blurred lines between digital play spaces and real-world social issues. As children spend more time in virtual worlds, these environments inevitably become places where they process, interpret, and respond to the complex realities they witness outside the game.

For parents and educators, these virtual activities present an opportunity for meaningful conversations about immigration policy, empathy, and the real-world impact of enforcement actions. While some aspects of this gameplay may be concerning, the digital protests in particular may represent a constructive way for young people to engage with complex social issues and find community with others sharing similar concerns.

As Ramos emphasized, these digital connections shouldn’t be dismissed, as they can “really be a lifeline” for children trying to understand challenging social realities.