The National Center on Sexual Exploitation announced that Discord is on the 2020 Dirty Dozen List, a list of mainstream companies that are major facilitators of sexual exploitation in the United States.
Discord is a communication service utilized by 100 million active users. What started as a community platform for gamers has exploded into a mainstream virtual meeting spot. It advertises itself as "a place to talk and hang out" but its actual environment is much more sinister than safe.
Discord has expanded their brand beyond gaming as many use the platform for texting, calling and video chatting. But exploiters go to Discord to groom children for sexual abuse or sex trafficking, and to trade pornography—including child sexual abuse materials, non-consensually recorded and/or shared pornography, and more.
The age verification procedures are substandard. New users were never even asked their birthday upon signup until mid 2020. The lax moderation from Discord has created an environment that fosters sexual exploitation and abuse on a mass scale.
To read more about Discord and advocate that Discord improve child safety features and content moderation, click here.