By Kayla DeKraker
Social media app Discord rolled out a significant update to its Family Center parental supervision tool that gives guardians greater control of their teenagers’ activity on the app.
The app will now allow parents to choose who teens can receive messages from, but there’s a slight compromise.
“…we’re rolling out over the next week new Family Center features to help guardians stay informed and play a more active role in their teens’ online experiences, while making sure teens continue to have a voice in shaping their digital environment,” Discord explained in a Nov. 5 statement. “These updates are built with our teen safety principles, informed by teen research and perspectives.”
Related: Is Discord Safe for Your Child? Here’s What Parents Need to Know
According to The Verge, “New Social Permissions toggles will allow guardians to choose whether their teens can receive direct messages only from friends or from anyone who’s a member of the same servers as them.”
Although parents have some control over the app, the company reassured teens that some things are kept under wraps.
“Guardians can’t see the content of the messages you send. The information they do see is meant to help keep you safe, and you’ll see the exact same information in Family Center, so there’s full transparency,” Discord told younger users.
Though Discord’s update solves some of its concerning child safety features, parents should still be cautious.
“I sometimes think of Discord as being a little more similar to Reddit or Pinterest, where, in theory, you’re there more for activities and learning and engaging around those activities, versus a more purely social platform like Instagram or Facebook,” Megan Morena, a professor and researcher who co-directs the American Academy of Pediatrics, told Parents of the platform last month.
She added, “The functionality that allows users to interact with each other without any level of real identification or protection is worrisome on any platform.”
As with any social media platform, it is vital that parents take the lead in protecting their kids online and, as always, keep open lines of communication with your children about what they’re doing on their screens.
“There’s no way of sugar-coating it, there are so many different elements that it is complicated and laborious,” admitted Luke Savage, senior project officer at NSPCC Child Safety Online, of keeping kids safe. “From the wifi router in the home to the device in a child’s hand, the computer console they’re playing on and the apps or games themselves – each one has individual settings and controls… There are limitations to parental controls. They’re not perfect – children can bypass them if they’re clever enough.”
This is why it is so important that parents manage their child’s online safety and have a running dialogue with their children about the dangers of the internet. Parents can also prevent their children from being online at all if that is the best decision for them.
Read Next: Chuck Norris Encourages Parents to Fight for Their Children’s Safety Online
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