Discord has been ordered to provide young users in Texas with the same child safety protections it already offers in the United Kingdom following a court ruling secured by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The order requires the messaging platform to introduce stronger age-assurance measures and stricter default safety settings for minors within 90 days.
The case centres on allegations that Discord’s existing default settings left children vulnerable to contact from strangers. According to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, investigators created a Discord account posing as a 13-year-old girl and were contacted almost immediately by an unknown user, who allegedly solicited explicit sexual activity within seconds of making contact.
Paxton argues that the incident demonstrates how quickly minors can be approached by adults on the platform when adequate safeguards are not in place. Discord allows users to create accounts using an email address and a self-reported date of birth, and the lawsuit alleges that these measures do not sufficiently verify a user’s age.
Earlier this year, Discord announced plans to introduce enhanced safety protections globally. However, according to the Texas Attorney General, those features had only been implemented in the United Kingdom, while the broader rollout was postponed until the second half of 2026.
In May, Paxton filed a lawsuit against the company and obtained a temporary restraining order requiring Discord to stop applying what the state described as its weakest default safety settings to accounts belonging to Texas children. The court also prohibited the company from marketing the platform as “safe by design” while the legal proceedings continued.
The latest ruling expands those requirements through a temporary injunction. Under the order, Discord must provide Texas minors with the same protections currently available to users in the United Kingdom.
The court directed the company to route direct messages from unknown users into a separate message request inbox rather than delivering them automatically. It must also block sensitive content for teenage users by default and prevent those protections from being disabled unless Discord verifies that the account holder is an adult.
In addition, the injunction requires Discord to restrict access to adult-only spaces for users whose age has not been verified. The company must submit progress reports to the Texas Attorney General’s Office every 30 days while implementing the required changes.
Paxton said the order ensures that Texas children will receive the same level of protection already available to young Discord users in the United Kingdom. Discord has been given 90 days to comply with the court’s requirements, while the underlying legal case remains ongoing.