TAMPA, Fla. — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a civil lawsuit against Discord on Thursday, accusing the communications platform of misleading parents about its safety and failing to protect children from sexual predators.
Uthmeier said the action follows about six months of investigation after his office issued subpoenas to the company. While Discord made some changes during that period, he said its safeguards remain inadequate.
“Discord told parents not to worry,” Uthmeier said. “But what the records and cases show is that Discord has not had real age verification.”
NOW: Florida AG James Uthmeier announces a civil lawsuit against Discord, alleging weak age checks allowed adults to pose as children and prey on young users.
@AGJamesUthmeier: “Adults were able to pretend to be kids, prey upon kids, and unfortunately, in too many cases, physically, sexually abuse kids.”— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) October 15, 2026
The lawsuit alleges deceptive and unfair trade practices, negligence, negligent misrepresentation and public nuisance. The state is seeking financial penalties and court-ordered changes, including stronger age verification and measures to prevent banned users from creating new accounts.
Uthmeier said the state’s claims could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. The allegations have not been proven in court.
Discord began as a communications platform for people playing video games, allowing users to connect through text, voice and other features. Uthmeier said predators have exploited those tools to pose as children and move conversations into private channels.
He said investigators have documented cases in which offenders first contacted children on platforms such as Roblox before directing them to Discord, where the conversations became sexually explicit.
In one case, Uthmeier said, an adult man posing as a teenager lured an 11-year-old Miami girl from Roblox to Discord before sexually assaulting and kidnapping her.
In another, he said a St. Cloud man posed as a 14-year-old boy and contacted nearly 300 children. The man is now serving a life sentence, Uthmeier said.
The attorney general accused Discord of inadequate content moderation and allowing users to register largely by providing an email address and a birthdate.
“We’re asking the court for real protections, programmatic changes to ensure real age verification,” he said.
WATCH: Florida AG James Uthmeier warns parents about online predators as he announces a lawsuit against Discord.
@AGJamesUthmeier: “It sounds like a scene from a horror movie, and it is. But it is happening in this state. It is happening in every part of this state.” https://t.co/394gTahwtR— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) October 15, 2026
Officials at the news conference urged parents to monitor their children’s apps, review privacy settings and discuss online interactions. They warned that exploitation can begin with ordinary conversations about games or shared interests before escalating into requests for explicit images, threats or attempts to arrange meetings.
The action adds to Florida’s broader efforts targeting technology companies over child safety. Uthmeier cited previous actions involving Roblox, Snapchat, Meta and TikTok.
“Sure, make money, make profit, but do not choose profit over public safety,” Uthmeier said.
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