Discord, an instant messaging social platform with millions of users, has provided a space for child predators to groom minors and extort them into sending sexually explicit images of themselves, according to a horrifying NBC News report. The outlet discovered 35 cases in the past six years of adults charged with kidnapping, grooming or sexual assault who used Discord to communicate with their victims—in addition to 165 more cases of pedophiles prosecuted for sharing child pornography and engaging in sextortion. Over 200 online servers on Discord appear to be markets for child sexual exploitation material, and some have upwards of 1,500 members, NBC reported. Discord’s large presence of online gamers also means predators will sometimes lure children from Roblox or Minecraft to the platform, where they can text message or video and audio call. Reports of exploitative material have skyrocketed by 474 percent from 2021 to 2022 on Discord, although the platform has also moved to disable 37,102 accounts for child safety violations. A company exec said it was “very actively investigating, and will invest in, age assurance technologies.”
