How the consumption of illegal content, especially on Discord, is affecting teenagers

Young people all over the world are increasingly starting to consume content via the internet on their smartphones, at an increasingly younger age, and this has worried the entire community. An application that was created by the Gamer community to chat while playing online, create podcasts, videocasts, is now used to disseminate illicit content, such as pornography, mutilation of animals and themselves, even Nazi content and encouraging attacks on schools.

The application works through servers, also called rooms, where virtual communities are created and the created contents are shown and visualized. These rooms are closed, but anyone can enter. The application has a terms of use which prohibits violent and illegal content.

Children and teenagers are the ones who most consume this type of content on Discord. This behavior is causing both parents and the school community a great concern, as there is space within rooms in the application where they seek to deny the content taught in the classroom and there is a confrontation against what teachers teach.

There is also room for positive points within the platform, such as scientific disclosures, teachers teaching seriously, loving relationships.

The most vulnerable are adolescent girls, who, because they are still easily manipulated, are coerced into challenges, ranging from live or recorded masturbation, to self-mutilation, mainly on the genitals. Server owners often discover victims’ personal data and, under threat, force them to perform these acts or challenges.

The need to belong to something, to be popular or to be against the current system, is pointed out by specialists, such as psychologists, as the reasons why these young people are entering this world. What was formerly seen only in the deep web, nowadays it usually happens on some social network. Because there is no control, not only in Brazil, but worldwide, experts say that cruelty has only increased.

In the United States, there are lawsuits against these platforms, and a specific one against Discord stands out. A 13-year-old girl was sexually and financially exploited on one of these servers, had her nude photos and videos leaked and was blackmailed. After the leak, she attempted suicide. Parents demand compensation in court.

There are also communities of animal abuse, such as videos of young people setting fire to cats, dissemination of Nazi content, with young people writing the name of the classrooms they attend on their foreheads and encouraging attacks on schools.

Both in the US and in Europe and Brazil, there is discussion about regulation by governments of internet applications. In Brazil, this Tuesday (02) there will be a vote on a bill to regulate the internet. Among the rules to be implemented, the most important are those that call for greater transparency for moderation and algorithms and increased filters on the platforms themselves to combat these types of content.

The ECA, Statute of Children and Adolescents, created by UNICEF, determines the protection of children, and has parts that recommend applications to develop filters in order to protect young people and prevent the consumption and dissemination of harmful content.

This year, the Brazilian Ministry of Justice created a task force, through the Cybernetic Operations Laboratory, to closely monitor and monitor these social networks and groups that spread hate.

These contents are not born within the Discord application. The task force identified that content usually comes from Twitter and TikTok gains relevance, through short videos that lead the user to consume on Discord, with just one click.

Telegram, another conversation app, which this past week was offline due to a decision by the Brazilian court, on charges of not sending data from criminals who use the app to commit various crimes and conspire against democracy, as in the case on January 8th, when there was an attempted coup in Brazil.

Telegram got an injunction and last Saturday (28) managed to overturn the injunction and has been operating in Brazil since then.

Featured Photo: Woman holding cell phone – (Photo: reproduction/Freepick)