Texas Sues Discord Over Child Safety and Deceptive Practices

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Discord, accusing the popular communications platform of misleading parents and users about its safety features while failing to adequately protect children from online predators.

Filed in the District Court of Collin County, Texas, the lawsuit alleges Discord falsely marketed itself as a platform where safety is “at the core of everything we do” while designing features and policies that made it easier for predators to identify, contact, and exploit minors. According to the complaint, Discord's public representations about safety did not match how the platform actually operated.

Texas argues Discord falsely assures users and parents that adequate safeguards are in place to protect children. Paxton claims predators can easily create accounts, conceal their identities, communicate with minors, and operate through private servers that receive little oversight from the company. Court filings also challenge Discord's age verification, moderation, reporting, and account safety systems, arguing many of the platform's protective features are optional rather than enabled by default.

The lawsuit was filed under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, a consumer protection lawconsumer protection lawConsumer protection law is the body of federal and state laws designed to protect people from unfair, deceptive, fraudulent, or abusive practices in the marketplace. These laws regulate areas such as advertising, sales, lending, debt collection, credit reporting, warranties, financial services, and consumer products.Read more → that prohibits businesses from making false, misleading, or deceptive representations about products and services. Texas argues Discord's public claims about safety and child protection did not match how the platform's safety features and moderation systems actually operated.

Court filings point to several incidents involving minors that Texas says illustrate the risks posed by the platform. One example involved a 13-year-old Galveston County girl whose family alleges she was groomed and abused by a predator who contacted her through Discord and Roblox. The complaint also highlights the online network known as 764, which federal authorities have linked to child exploitation and violent extremist activity and which allegedly used Discord as part of its communications infrastructure.

Discord has grown from a platform originally designed for gamers into one of the world's largest communications apps, allowing users to communicate through direct messages, voice chats, video calls, and community-based servers organized around shared interests.

More broadly, the case is one of several actions Paxton has pursued against technology companies involving children's online safety, privacy practices, and alleged deceptive conduct affecting minors. Texas previously launched investigations into Discord and other major online platforms under state privacy and child safety laws.

In announcing the lawsuit, Paxton accused Discord of misrepresenting the effectiveness of its safety features and argued that the platform failed to adequately protect children from online predators.

Beyond civil penalties, Texas is asking the court to require Discord to default safety settings to maximum protection, implement age-verification requirements, and prohibit the company from representing the platform as safe for children until it complies with those requirements. The state is also seeking injunctive relief and other remedies under Texas law.