ID: I202602091636
Status: idea
Tags: Discord, Child Safety
Discord Teen-by-default settings
On February 9th Discord announced the following in this article. All accounts that exist will be set to “Teenager” by default. This means that to do “Adult” like things, or to toggle “Adult” like settings, you’ll have to verify your age.
Beginning with a phased global rollout to new and existing users in early March, users may be required to engage in an age-verification process to change certain settings or access sensitive content. This includes age-restricted channels, servers, or commands and select message requests.
Discord did mention privacy concerns:
Key privacy protections of Discord’s age-assurance approach include:
- On-device processing: Video selfies for facial age estimation never leave a user’s device.
- Quick deletion: Identity documents submitted to our vendor partners are deleted quickly— in most cases, immediately after age confirmation.
- Straightforward verification: In most cases, users complete the process once and their Discord experience adapts to their verified age group. Users may be asked to use multiple methods only when more information is needed to assign an age group.
- Private status: A user’s age verification status cannot be seen by other users.
It is important to remember that discord already leaked user ID’s in the past, so whether you can trust Discord with your Identification is your judgement.
So what will your settings be like as the “Teenager” by default experience?
Starting in early March, all new and existing Discord users globally will be assigned new default settings that support age-appropriate experiences while keeping privacy front and center:
- Content Filters: Discord users will need to be age-assured as adults in order to unblur sensitive content or turn off the setting.
- Age-gated Spaces – Only users who are age-assured as adults will be able to access age-restricted channels, servers, and app commands.Â
- Message Request Inbox: Direct messages from people a user may not know are routed to a separate inbox by default, and access to modify this setting is limited to age-assured adult users.
- Friend Request Alerts: People will receive warning prompts for friend requests from users they may not know.
- Stage Restrictions: Only age-assured adults may speak on stage in servers.
So does it really matter if you are unverified as an “Adult”? unless you use discord to view NSFW channels, use discord to send and receive “Sensitive content”, or are someone that uses the stage feature. It will not matter to not be labelled as an “Adult”.
My opinion
In my opinion, this is a good way for discord to have handled the situation, the people that don’t want to share government ID will not need to show it in order to use discord, they will just be a little bit restricted in the places where most discord users will not notice it.
Is this enough to “Protect the kids”? Probably not, but it is fine.