The state of New Jersey brought an action against Discord, claiming that the company has embarked on “deceptive and unreasonable business practices” which endanger children. The prosecution was filed Thursday and alleys the popular messaging application not to do enough to protect its younger users from predators and violent content. Here is a link to the complaint.
The prosecution claims that existing discord protections for children are inadequate or are easy to get around. For example, while Discord prohibits users under the age of 13 from creating an account, it does nothing to verify that users are the age they claim.
“Any discord made to check the age of a new user is obliging that the user enters a date of birth – which means that any 8 -year -old child can access the request simply by saying that he is 13 years old,” said the trial. In addition, Discord has parameters that will filter the messages according to the sender. However, by default, the application allows any message from a user’s friends passing without being analyzed. This feature, affirms the trial, when combined with the possibility of receiving requests from friends to anyone, allows children to receive inappropriate messages.
Discord has already been prosecuted for not having taken enough measures to protect its youngest users. This prosecution of the Prosecutor General of New Jersey represents the first action of the State taken against the application and is one of the many legal actions taken against large platforms centered on the game was focused on the protection of children against exploitation, violence and sexual content.
Discord recently implemented an experimental pilot program that scans the face or identification of a user in order to access the sensitive content in accordance with local children’s safety laws in the United Kingdom and Australia. In an email at The penisDiscord spokesperson Jillian Susi wrote: “Discord is proud of our continuous efforts and our investments in the features and tools that help make discord safer. Given our commitment to the Office of the Attorney General, we are surprised by the announcement that New Jersey has put an action against Discord today.
