In a major announcement, Discord said users may be required to go through an age-verification process starting in early March. This is part of a broader initiative toward enhanced teen safety features, which includes teen-appropriate experiences, updated communication settings, restricted access to age-gated spaces, and content filtering. What most people will focus on, however, is the age-verification process that may be required to change certain settings or access sensitive content. This includes age-restricted channels, servers, or commands, and select message requests.
According to Discord, the age assurance is designed to respect Discord users’ privacy and choice. Options to prove your age include facial age estimation, submitting a form of identification to a vendor partner, and more. Discord says it will also implement an age inference model that runs in the background to determine whether an account belongs to an adult. This way, it doesn’t always have to require users to verify their age. It did admit that some users may be asked to use multiple methods if more information is needed.
For obvious reasons, the broader Discord community isn’t happy about the announcement. Discord is claiming that it will use on-device processing for video selfies, which means those videos never leave the user’s device, and that identity documents submitted to vendor partners are deleted quickly, in most cases immediately after confirmation. The problem is, Discord doesn’t necessarily have the greatest track record of protecting its users and data, so some people are skeptical of these promises.
Starting in early March, all Discord users will be assigned new default settings that support age-appropriate experiences. This includes changes to content filters, age-gated spaces, the message request inbox, friend request alerts, and stage restrictions.
The teen-by-default experience actually launched last year in the U.K. and Australia. The changes starting next month are part of the global rollout.
