By Michaela Gordoni
Discord will verify users’ ages with face-scanning software and IDs, but can it be trusted with all that data?
Next month, Discord users will be set to a teen-appropriate experience by default. The default settings will restrict what users can see and how they can communicate, BBC noted.
“Nowhere is our safety work more important than when it comes to teen users,” said Discord policy head Savannah Badalich. “Rolling out teen-by-default settings globally builds on Discord’s existing safety architecture, giving teens strong protections while allowing verified adults flexibility.”
To see more mature content, the new face scan uses AI to estimate users’ age and asks for an ID. Discord says the data is only stored on users’ devices and is deleted afterward.
Related: Discord Rolls Out New Parent Controls, But Is It Enough to Keep Kids Safe?
Discord promises “the data is deleted quickly — in most cases, immediately after age confirmation.”
“For most adults, age verification won’t be required, as Discord’s age inference model uses account information such as account tenure, device and activity data, and aggregated, high-level patterns across Discord communities,” said Badalich. “Discord does not use private messages or any message content in this process.”
“The sentiment behind creating a safer community for all social media users is a positive move,” said Drew Benvie, head of social media consultancy Battenhall. “Discord could lose users if its implementation of age verification backfires, but it could equally attract more new users who will be drawn to its new standards for online safety by design.”
Discord began the process of age verification last year, when Australia banned social media for all users under 16.
In October, Discord was hacked, and over 70,000 users’ IDs and personal details were leaked, the BBC reported.
And last year, users found out they could bypass age verification by showing photos of realistic-looking characters in the video game series, Death Stranding. Badalich said Discord fixed the issue after one week, but she expects users will still try to get around the new age checks.
The will “try to bug bash as much as we possibly can,” she says.
To remove the new “teen-by-default” changes and limitations, “users can choose to use facial age estimation or submit a form of identification to [Discord’s] vendor partners, with more options coming in the future,” Discord said.
Badalich further explained, “We’re not doing biometric scanning [or] facial recognition. We’re doing facial estimation. The ID is immediately deleted.”
“We do not keep any information around like your name, the city that you live in, if you used a birth certificate or something else, any of that information,” she said.
Discord users will have to decide for themselves if they’re willing to give the platform their data.
Read Next: Is Discord Safe for Your Child? Here’s What Parents Need to Know
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
– Content: +2Share:
– Content: +3