Editor’s note: This story describes extremely disturbing events that may be upsetting for some people.as “Brad.” Using flattery and guile, he persuaded the 14-year-old girl to send a nude photo. It instantly became leverage.
The perpetrators — identified by authorities as boys and men as old as mid-40s — seek out children with mental health issues and blackmail them into hurting themselves on camera, the examination found. They belong to a set of evolving online groups, some of which have thousands of members, that often splinter and take on new names but have overlapping membership and use the same tactics.
Discord, a hub for gamers, is one of the most popular social media platforms among teens and is growing fast. The platform allows anonymous users to control and moderate large swaths of its private meeting rooms with little oversight. In a statement, Telegram did not respond to detailed questions about this network but said it removes “millions” of pieces of harmful content each day through “proactive monitoring of public parts of the platform and user reports.”
“The actions of 764 are appalling and have no place on Discord or in society,” the company said in a statement. “Since 2021, when Discord first became aware of 764, disrupting the group and its sadistic activity has been among our Safety team’s highest priorities. Discord has specialized groups who focus on combating this decentralized network of internet users, and 764 has and continues to be a target of their daily work.
“Discord has provided a safe space for evil people,” the mother said. “It’s their responsibility to provide a safe space for everyone.”The founder of 764 was a 16-year-old boy in Texas who used variations of the screen names “Felix” or “Brad” while running the group’s online operations from his mother’s home.
Lanier told The Post that Cadenhead was uploading child pornography on Discord as late as July 2021, several months after the Oklahoma girl was groomed and abused there. Lanier said that in six years of investigating child pornography cases he had “never seen anything as dark as this. Not even close.”A woman whose daughter was targeted by online predators through Discord shows messages she sent to her child.