Discord Bans Teen Dating and Child Sex Abuse Following Investigation

The Chief of Trust and Safety at Discord announced on Tuesday modifications and elucidations to the platform’s child safety policies, particularly concerning teen dating and AI-generated child sexual abuse content.

This announcement follows an NBC News investigation last month scrutinizing child safety on the platform.

Discord has served as a nexus for communities that create AI-generated images, and it has facilitated numerous integrations enabling users to produce these images. Servers often see the generation of sexually themed images.

A representative from Discord explained that the policy updates had been underway since the final quarter of 2021, as part of an initiative that involved discussions with child safety specialists and were not connected to any recent report.

Discord said in a blog post that its updated policy on child sexual abuse material is going to include:

Any text or media content that sexualizes children, including drawn, photorealistic, and AI-generated photorealistic child sexual abuse material. The goal of this update is to ensure that the sexualization of children in any context is not normalized by bad actors.

Redgrave further stated that the company was introducing policy alterations and clarifications to explicitly prohibit teen dating, which experts had earlier informed NBC News could be a substantial opportunity for adults intending to manipulate or groom children.

Discord further added in a blog post:

In this context, we also believe that dating online can result in self-endangerment. Under this policy, teen dating servers are prohibited on the platform and we will take action against users who are engaging in this behavior.

At TrustCon, a conference for trust and safety professionals in San Francisco, Redgrave stated in a presentation that the company identified these online relationships as a significant hazard for young individuals.