FLORIDA — Florida’s attorney general has opened a civil investigation into Discord, seeking information on how the online chat platform protects children from predators and harmful content.
Attorney General James Uthmeier said Discord has increasingly been used by offenders to target minors, often starting on other platforms like Roblox or Fortnite before moving conversations to Discord. The subpoena demands details on marketing to children, age verification, parental controls, content moderation, and predator reporting practices.
“Many of our criminal investigations into internet child predators lead to one place: Discord,” said Attorney General James Uthmeier. “Groomers and predators seem to believe that they can get away with targeting children on Discord—and we are going to find out why. Discord owes us an explanation on the overwhelming use of its platform among predators, and what they are doing to protect children.”
The investigation will review whether Discord has violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and aims to hold social media and gaming platforms accountable for environments that allow child exploitation.
Uthmeier is demanding Discord produce documents, including, but not limited to:
- Marketing and promotional materials that represent the platform’s safety, suitability, and appropriateness for children.
- Documents relating to the marketing of Discord directly to children.
- Procedures relating to content and communication moderation.
- Records of complaints alleging exploitation, and records of responsive steps taken.
- Documents describing age-verification processes and parent control features.
- Records of criminal cases involving children.
- Data on how many children are utilizing the platform
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