New Jersey is the first state in America to sue Discord, a messaging app popular among gamers.

“I’m horrified by Discord as a company’s dishonesty,” said Attorney General Matt Platkin. “It tells parents that their app is designed to protect children from harm, knowing full well that simply is not the case.”

Two hundred million users are on Discord to chat over video, audio or text. The state argues that its youngest users aren’t protected.

Discord requires its users to be at least 13 years old. But there isn’t any age verification to sign up in the United States - anyone can say they are any age. In the United Kingdom and Australia, Discord is “experimenting” with requiring users to scan their face or an ID to access sensitive content or change settings.

This week, a Toms River man was charged for traveling to Norway in 2023 to have sex with a 14-year-old girl. According to the complaint, 28-year-old Jacob Bauer chatted with the girl on Discord.

By default, Discord users can receive friend requests from anyone. But two users can chat even without being friends if they’re in the same server. The largest have millions of users.

“It’s another tool that bad actors online can use,” said Rowan University academic Esports coordinator Dr. Kacey Doran. “I don’t think that it’s inherently more unsafe than other online tools that children are going to use.”

The Rowan University Esports club has its own Discord server, but users need a university email to join. Doran says effective moderators can make the difference.

“It makes me sad and scared and disappointed,” Doran said. “I have nephews, and I play video games with them. I can picture and understand people’s concerns about this. And so, that would be my recommendation - not to set up community servers without having dedicated, responsible people who are moderating it.”

The state is asking for an injunction to stop Discord from violating the Consumer Fraud Act, as well as returning profits.

Discord spokesperson Jillian Susi replied with this statement:

“Discord is proud of our continuous efforts and investments in features and tools that help make Discord safer. Given our engagement with the Attorney General's office, we are surprised by the announcement that New Jersey has filed an action against Discord today. We dispute the claims in the lawsuit and look forward to defending the action in court.”