The state of New Jersey has instituted legal action against Discord, accusing the company of participating in "deceptive and unconscionable business practices" that potentially endanger children. The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, claims that the popular messaging platform falls short in safeguarding young users from predators and violent content. A link to the complaint is provided.
According to the lawsuit, Discord’s current child protection measures are either insufficient or easily bypassed. While users under the age of 13 are prohibited from creating an account, Discord does not actively verify the age of those signing up.
The legal document states, “All Discord does to verify a new user’s age is require the user to enter a birthdate — meaning any 8-year-old can access the application merely by saying they are 13.” Additionally, while Discord offers message filtering based on the sender, by default, messages from a user’s friends are allowed without being scanned. This feature, the lawsuit argues, combined with the possibility of receiving friend requests from anyone, enables children to receive inappropriate content.
Discord has faced lawsuits in the past for allegedly insufficient protection of its youngest users. The New Jersey attorney general’s suit marks the first state-level action against the app and is part of various legal pursuits aimed at safeguarding children on major gaming platforms from exploitation, violence, and sexual content.
Recently, Discord has rolled out an experimental pilot program that scans a user’s face or ID to access sensitive material, in line with child safety regulations in places like the UK and Australia. In communication with The Verge, Discord spokesperson Jillian Susi stated, “Discord is proud of our continuous efforts and investments in features and tools that help make Discord safer. Given our engagement with the Attorney General’s office, we are surprised by the announcement that New Jersey has filed an action against Discord today. We dispute the claims in the lawsuit and look forward to defending the action in court.”
