Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a civil investigation into Discord, a popular online gaming app, for its complicity in allegedly allowing child predators to interact with minors on its platform.
“It’s clear that predators see a safe haven on the Discord app. They believe that they are protected, and it might be harder for them to be monitored, to be tracked by either parents or law enforcement,” Uthmeier said while speaking in Sarasota today.
“This has to stop,” Uthmeier charged. “All roads lead to Discord, and we’re going to stand in the way. We’re going to team up with our law enforcement and our investigators. We’re going to investigate, and we’re going to hold this company accountable for taking advantage of our kids.”
Uthmeier noted, while pulling out his phone, the app’s marketing as “talk, play, hang out” and that group chats are “fun and games.”
“[Discord is] marketed to our children. And if they are actively marketing to kids, marketing a safe product, and we see evidence that they are not doing everything they can to stop the abuse, then we will certainly hold them accountable in court,” Uthmeier commented.
The attorney general pointed to a case of a 29-year-old Tennessee man in Marion County who created a Discord chat room called the “Kitty Cult” to allegedly groom young girls, including sending them Hello Kitty box cutters to cut his online user name into their skin. Uthmeier also noted the man would admit he was a pedophile and wanted to prey upon kids.
In addition, the man allowed access to other child predators in the chat group, and together they would allegedly coerce children into providing sexually explicit content.
The man would later travel from Tennessee to Marion County to abduct a young girl, Uthmeier noted. The girl was eventually rescued, and the man was arrested.
“We need answers. We need answers. We need to know what these companies are doing to protect our kids,” Uthmeier said.
Uthmeier announced a similar investigation into Roblox for allegedly deceiving parents about the safety of its platform in protecting children against sexually explicit material from child predators during a news conference in December 2025.
