TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBS12) — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Wednesday that his office has launched an investigation into Discord, alleging the popular messaging platform may be putting children at risk of online predators.
According to a newly issued subpoena, the Attorney General’s Office is seeking records related to how Discord markets to minors, enforces age verification, moderates content, and handles parental controls and reports of exploitative activity.
The move comes amid growing concerns that predators are using multiple platforms to contact children — and then shifting conversations to Discord.
Last month, Uthmeier issued a warning about online predators targeting kids on Roblox, Snapchat, and Fortnite.
“There have been many concerning reports indicating that predators initially contact minors on other platforms, including video games like Roblox and Fortnite, and then encourage them to move communications to Discord,” the office said in a statement, pointing to what it described as potentially insufficient protections for children.
Discord, widely used by millions of people worldwide, allows users to communicate through text, voice, video, and file sharing — features that investigators say could be exploited if safeguards are lacking.
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Uthmeier said the investigation is part of a broader effort to hold tech companies accountable for protecting minors online.
“With so many criminal investigations leading to Discord, they owe us an explanation as to why predators keep getting to kids on the app,” Uthmeier wrote in a post on X.
The probe follows a similar legal action taken by the state late last year. In December, Uthmeier’s office sued Roblox, accusing the gaming platform of misleading parents about safety measures while failing to prevent children from accessing explicit content and being targeted by predators.
No allegations of wrongdoing have yet been proven against Discord, and the company has not publicly responded to the subpoena.
