Discord app exposes children to mistreatment and graphic content, says the trial

The Discord messaging platform recklessly exposes children to violent graphic content, sexual abuse and exploitation, the New Jersey Attorney General said on Thursday in an brought trial.

New Jersey is the first state of the country to bring an action against Discord, whose 200 million users can publish in chat rooms and exchange direct messages with each other. Founded in 2015 as a cat tool for players, it has exploded in popularity in recent years in children, a trend that has accelerated at the height of the pandemic.

The popularity of the application and limited security checks have made its users easy objectives for predators, prosecutors said in the trial, which was deposited before the Superior Court in the county of Essex.

“Discord occurs as a safe space for children, although it is fully aware that the deceptive security parameters of the application and the monitoring of Lax have made it a privileged hunting ground for online predators who are looking for easy access to children,” said the Attorney General, Matthew J. Platkin, in a statement announcing the prosecution.

Discord users must be 13 or more, depending on the platform policies. But the costume indicates that because Discord accounts are so easy to create, and because users can use pseudonyms, young children can escape age restrictions with little difficulty and adults can easily pose children.

The complaint cites several criminal cases against adults from New Jersey who have been accused of having used the application to start an explicit communication with children, solicit and send naked photos and participate in sexual acts on video chat.