The New York Times reported earlier this year that the tech industry had made only tepid efforts to combat an explosion of child sexual abuse imagery on the internet. The Times has also found that the troubled response extends to the online gaming and chat worlds, where popular and successful companies have created spaces that allow adults and children to interact, despite efforts to create some safeguards.
There are tools to detect previously identified abuse content, but scanning for new images — like those extorted in real time from young gamers — is more difficult. While a handful of products have detection systems in place, there is little incentive under the law to tackle the problem as companies are largely not held responsible for illegal content posted on their websites.
“Our society says we’re going to protect kids in the physical world, but we’ve yet to see that in the same way on the digital side,” said Steven J. Grocki, who leads the child exploitation and obscenity section at the Justice Department.
A spokesman for Discord said in a statement that the company had a “zero-tolerance policy for any illegal activity.”
“No parent should have to worry that their child is exposed to inappropriate content,” he added, “and we deeply empathize with the challenges that families face in protecting their children online.”