Discord begins age checks, says most users will not need verification
The company will use account and device signals to classify users, while unconfirmed accounts can appeal through payment or app-store data.
Discord will begin rolling out age assurance to all users on Wednesday, according to TechCrunch. The company says more than 90 per cent will not need to verify their age.
Discord says it will use existing account tenure, device and activity signals, and usage patterns to classify accounts as adult, teen or unconfirmed. It says the system does not estimate age from message content, profile data or demographic attributes.
Users whose age remains unconfirmed can appeal by providing a credit card or age-group data from an Apple or Google account. Discord says confirmed adults will see no change to the platform.
Teen accounts will be blocked from age-restricted servers and channels. Message requests from non-friends will go to a separate inbox, and teens will receive alerts when accepting friend requests from people with no mutual friends.
The rollout follows Discord’s February delay after users raised privacy concerns about biometric scans and ID checks. TechCrunch reported that a third-party vendor working with Discord was breached last year, potentially exposing ID photos and selfies associated with 70,000 users.
Discord CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy said age assurance laws had expanded since the delay, requiring launches in places including Brazil and Texas. The company has not specified how many users may be classified as unconfirmed.
