The state of New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against Discord, alleging the company engaged in “deceptive and unconscionable business practices” that put children at risk by not doing enough to protect them from predators and violent content.
The suit, filed on Thursday, claims that Discord’s existing protections for children are inadequate or easily circumvented. For example, while Discord prohibits users under 13 from creating an account, it doesn’t verify users’ ages, allowing any child to access the app by entering a false birthdate.
The lawsuit also points out that Discord’s message filtering settings are not enabled by default for messages from friends, and the app allows users to receive friend requests from anyone. This combination, the suit claims, enables children to receive inappropriate messages.
Discord has faced previous lawsuits for allegedly failing to protect its youngest users. This suit represents the first state action taken against the app and is part of a larger trend of legal actions against gaming-centric platforms focused on protecting children from exploitation, violence, and sexual content.
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In response to the lawsuit, a Discord spokesperson, Jillian Susi, stated that the company is “proud of our continuous efforts and investments in features and tools that help make Discord safer.” She added that Discord disputes the claims in the lawsuit and will defend the action in court.
Recently, Discord implemented an experimental pilot program in the UK and Australia that scans a user’s face or ID to access sensitive content, in accordance with local child safety laws.
