Alert! Discord Being Used By Predators To Lure Children Into Sextortion And Abduction
According to reports, some adults are using Discord, a widely used chat platform among teenagers, to groom children in secret communities and chat rooms. These individuals are engaging in activities such as abducting children, trading child sexual exploitation material (CSAM), and extorting minors by deceiving them into sending nude images.
According to NBC News, in the past six years, approximately 35 cases have been identified in which adults have been charged with “kidnapping, grooming or sexual harassment” allegedly related to Discord communications.
At least 15 of those have resulted in guilty pleas or convictions, with “many more” awaiting trial.
These numbers only include reported, investigated and prosecuted cases, all of which present significant challenges for victims and their advocates.
“What we’re seeing is just the tip of the iceberg,” Canadian Center for Child Protection (C3P) frontline director Stephen Sauer said.
Additionally, the report said the teenager was taken across state lines, raped and found locked in a backyard in March, police said, after being treated at Discord for months.
In another case, prosecutors say, a 22-year-old man kidnapped a 12-year-old girl after meeting her in a video game and grooming her on Discord.
The report identified an additional 165 cases, including four gangs, in which adults were accused of sending or receiving CSAM through Discord or allegedly using the platform to blackmail children into sending sexually graphic images of themselves.
Additionally, the report noted that Discord isn’t the only tech platform dealing with the ongoing issue of child abuse over the past year.
According to an analysis of reports by the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), CSAM reports on Discord increased 474 percent from 2021 to 2022.
According to NCMEC Vice President John Shehan, child abuse and exploitation material has grown rapidly on Discord.
“There is a child abuse problem on the platform. It’s undeniable,” Shehan said.
Launched in 2015, Discord quickly became a hub for online gamers and teenagers, and is now used by over 150 million people worldwide.
Last month, Discord notified users of a security breach resulting from the compromise of a third-party support agent’s account.
According to BleepingComputer, the agent’s support ticket queue was compromised as a result of a security breach that exposed users’ email addresses, messages exchanged with Discord support, and any attachments sent as part of tickets.
In April, cybersecurity researchers discovered a new piece of malware spreading on Discord, which has more than 300 million active users.
