Earlier this week, Discord announced plans to roll out age restrictions globally, after previously applying them within the UK and Australia. Reaction to that announcement was swift and negative, with claims from some users they would abandon the service, and posts from others showing them canceling their Discord Nitro subscriptions.
Now, Discord has posted a very long response on social media that seeks to reassure users by repeatedly saying that, for the “vast majority”, no age confirmation will be necessary — as most users do not access age-restricted servers or want to modify safety settings, which will by default blur explicit images, and restrict direct messages from users you may not know.
https://twitter.com/Falinxie_/status/2020901443763392667?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“We’ve seen some questions about our age assurance update and we want to share more clarity. We know how important these changes are to our community,” the company wrote. “Here’s what we want you to know: Discord is not requiring everyone to complete a face scan or upload an ID to use Discord. The vast majority of people can continue using Discord exactlyas they do today, wthout ever being asked to confirm their age.
“You must be a confirmed adult to access age-restricted content and experiences such as age-restricted servers and channels or to modify certain safety settings,” Discord continued. “The majority of Discord users don’t access age restricted content and will never go through a facial age estimation flow or ID verification. In the minority of cases where we cannot confirm you as an adult and you need to access age-restricted areas and settings, then you will be asked to go through additional steps.”
The company goes on to provide more detail on how it then handles the age verification process, should it be necessary, saying that it only receives your age when users provide an ID, or an estimated age range if you provide a video selfie. In the latter case, the selfie itself is processed locally, and not uploaded to Discord or an age verification partner.
And again, Discord stated, in some cases Discord is able to infer users are likely to be adults from its existing “advanced machine learning model” which detects specific user behavior, such as play history.
Regardless, the explanation has been subject to a further Community Note on Twitter / X, pointing out the fact that government ID information was stolen one from one of Discord’s former age verification vendors last year, and further disquiet from users on the idea that Discord was tracking usage to the extent that it could anonymously estimate their age.
One post that’s gone viral on social media appears to show a user circumventing Discord’s video selfie age verification flow by manipulating a character in gmod. It’s unclear if this has been recorded recently, though last year Discord said it had improved its technology after people similarly used the camera mode in Death Stranding to successfully claim they were over 18.
https://twitter.com/mitsufoppie/status/2020957345728110668?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Discord previously said that new and existing users will encounter the age verification process beginning in early March. Whether it now alters its plans or continues to push forward remains to be seen.
Image credit: Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
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