Mother sues Roblox after she says daughter’s suicide linked to extremist group

CINCINNATI (WXIX/Gray News) - A mother is suing Roblox, a popular online platform, with the hope of preventing other parents from experiencing tragedy - a child’s suicide.

Dec. 2, 2024, the day that shook Jaimee Seitz’s life when her 13-year-old daughter, Audree Heinee, took her life.

“I feel as though something snapped,” Seitz described. “Her laying her clothes out, I truly believe she was planning to go to school.”

Seitz says Heinne was a normal teenager who had a variety of interests, from playing sports, taking part in pageants, playing guitar, and drawing.

She says her daughter made sure everyone was always laughing.

“Audree was my best friend,” Seitz said. “Since I had her younger, it was like we grew up together.”

Seitz had no idea her daughter was fighting a battle she knew nothing about.

“I didn’t see a difference,” explained Seitz. “She hid it really well, if so.”

One week after Heinee took her own life, Seitz met with detectives and found out her daughter’s death was not an accident or a TikTok challenge gone wrong.

“He told me she was in an extremist group called TCC, True Crime Community,” Seitz explained.

“It’s a group that glorifies school shooters, romanticizes them, obsessed with them, and they feed off of each other,” Seitz explained.

Matthew Kriner, executive director of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism, says more and more they are seeing kids, even 8 years old and younger, being pressured into online communities that encourage mass violence.

“Anyone at this stage can become captured by this online space,” Kriner admitted. “It’s so pervasive and sticky that a lot of young people have normalized it.”

Seitz was shocked, upset and confused.

She began to research the group, not leaving her computer for days.

“How did she, my beautiful, happy, seemingly innocent daughter, get involved in such a dark group?” Seitz wondered.

Seitz says she’s learned that the group participants are encouraged to either take their own life or the lives of others through a school shooting or bombing.

“She would never hurt anyone,” Seitz says. “She would never take a bomb to her school.”

Seitz said after a while, she read her daughter’s journal.

The pages detailed how her involvement in the group began on a popular gaming platform for kids.

“She met the people from TCC on Roblox, followed them to Discord, and then followed them on TikTok,” Seitz found out.

Kriner says this is a normal trajectory.

“It starts at one space that’s open for young children and teenagers, then they’re migrated to where they can be groomed or extorted,” Kriner explained.

Seitz says she didn’t recognize the daughter she knew from what she sees in her journal or the people in this group.

She says she would have never hurt anyone.

“I never want Audree to be seen that way, or in that light, because that’s not who she was,” Seitz described. “She took her own life because of being groomed and being told she had to.”

Seitz says as she learned more about her daughter’s connection to the group, she saw a school shooter in Wisconsin wearing one of the shirts she had made for Audree, at her request.

“That’s why I want to bring awareness,” Seitz explained. “Say a teenager or someone’s child wanted these shirts, they can question why. If this is a way to say you’re in this extremist group, at least their parents will know.”

Kriner says emulation to this extent typically means this is someone who is further along in the process of self-harm or harming others.

He recommends parents research mass shootings to familiarize themselves and know the signs.

Kriner says parents should have a dialogue with their kids about what they see online.

“What’s the worst thing you’ve seen?” Kriner recommends. “What scared you the most?”

Seitz says most parents are aware of the dangers on the internet when it comes to child predators, but online platforms do not do enough to protect kids from groups like TCC.

This is why Seitz is suing Roblox and continuing to share Audre’s story to make sure no one else’s kids lose their lives to this group.

“It makes me mad when people say that’s the issue, the phone, or the parenting at home,” Seitz says. “It wasn’t my parenting. It was online platforms, social platforms, and the grooming of them.”

Kriner says, “This is a growing issue online. We’re seeing larger numbers of individuals engaging in it, we’re seeing false amplification, whether it’s bots or artificial intelligence creating new forms of it.”

Seitz wants people to understand she’s not suing because she wants money.

She’s trying to prevent any more loss and pain from TCC.

“I want to be heard,” Seitz says. I want what Audree experienced... no child to ever go through. I do think they need to be held accountable.”

Roblox sent a statement to FOX19 NOW regarding the lawsuit and the extremist groups:

We are deeply troubled by any incident that endangers our users. Roblox’s vision is to be the safest platform on the internet, which is why our policies are purposely stricter than those found on many other platforms.

We limit chat for younger users, don’t allow the sharing of external images and have filters designed to block the sharing of personal information. We are continually innovating and investing in safety.

While no system is perfect, this year alone we have made over 145 safety enhancements to help protect our users and empower parents and caregivers with greater control and visibility.

We also understand that this is an industry-wide issue, and we are working to develop industry-wide standards and solutions focused on keeping children safe online. For instance, Roblox has taken an industry-leading stance on age-based communication and soon will require facial age estimation for all Roblox users who access our communications features.

Roblox is also a founding member of the Tech Coalition’s Lantern project and the Robust Open Online Safety Tools (ROOST). We partner with law enforcement and leading child safety and mental health organizations worldwide to combat the sexual exploitation of children.” - Roblox spokesperson

Roblox statement on lawsuit.

Roblox has a strict policy prohibiting content or behavior that supports, glorifies, or promotes hate groups, extremist organizations, or their ideologies, and we take immediate action when we identify violations.

While no system is perfect, our approach includes multiple layers of protection: advanced AI detection systems, dedicated teams who constantly monitor for critical harms, user reporting tools, and ongoing collaboration with law enforcement and safety organizations.

When we identify content that violates our Community standards, we remove it immediately and ban accounts associated with extremist activity.

Roblox statement regarding extremist groups.

To honor her daughter, Seitz created “Audree’s Scholarship.”

The scholarship gives young students tuition to the Art and Mindfulness class at the Baker Hunt Art and Cultural Center.

The class aims at fostering an understanding of thoughts and emotions while expressing them in a healthy way through art.

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