Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month

Sedition Announced on Monday It will roll out age verification on its platform globally starting next month, where it will automatically set all user accounts to a “teen-friendly” experience unless they prove they are an adult.

Users who are not verified as adults will not be able to access age-restricted servers and channels, and will not be able to talk in Discord “Theater” channels similar to live broadcastsand you’ll see content filters for any content Discord detects as graphic or sensitive. They’ll also get warning prompts for friend requests from potentially unfamiliar users, and direct messages from unfamiliar users will automatically be filtered into a separate inbox.

Direct messaging and non-age-restricted servers will continue to function normally, but users will not be able to send messages or view content in an age-restricted server until they complete the age verification process, even if it is a server they were part of before starting the age verification. Savannah Badalich, head of global product policy at Discord, said in an interview with Edge That these servers will be “jammed” with a black screen until the user verifies that they are an adult. Users will also not be able to join any new age-restricted servers without verifying their age.

The launch of Discord’s global age verification is part of A wave of similar moves On other online platforms, driven by an international legal push for age verification and stronger child safety measures. This isn’t the first time Discord has implemented some form of age verification either. It initially rolled out age verifications for users In the United Kingdom and Australia Last year, some users discovered how to circumvent it Use Stranded deathPicture mode. Badalich says Discord “immediately fixed the issue after a week,” but he expects users will continue to find creative ways to try to get around age verifications, adding that Discord will “try to bug as much as we can.”

It’s not just teens trying to cheat the system who may be trying to evade age checks. Adult users can also avoid verification due to data privacy concerns, especially if they don’t want to use an ID to verify their age. In October, one of Discord’s former third-party vendors I suffered a data breach This led to the exposure of users’ age verification data, including photos of government ID cards.

Government ID may still be required for age verification when rolled out globally. According to Discord, to remove the new “teens by default” changes and restrictions, “users can choose to use facial age estimation or submit an identification form to vendor partners (Discord), with more options available in the future.”

The first option uses AI to analyze the user’s video profile picture, which Discord says never leaves the user’s device. If the age estimate (teen or adult) from the selfie is incorrect, users can challenge it or verify with a photo of an ID document instead. This document will be verified by a third-party vendor, but Discord says images of those documents are “quickly deleted — in most cases, immediately after age confirmation.”

Badalich also says after the data breach in October, Discord “immediately stopped doing any type of age verification flows with that vendor” and is now using a different third-party vendor. She adds: “We do not do biometric scanning (or) facial recognition. We do facial estimation. The ID card is deleted immediately. We do not retain any information like your name, or the city you live in, or if you used a birth certificate or anything else, or any of that information.”

However, some users may not have to undergo any form of age verification. Discord is also rolling out an age inference model that analyzes metadata such as the types of games a user plays, their activity on Discord, and behavioral signals such as signs of working hours or the amount of time spent on Discord.

“If we have that much confidence that they’re adults, they won’t have to go through other age verifications,” Badalich says.

She goes on to explain that adding an age guarantee will primarily impact adult content: “The majority of people on Discord aren’t necessarily looking at explicit or graphic content. When we say that, we’re really talking about things that are really adult content (and) not age appropriate for teens. So, the way it’s going to work is the majority of people won’t see a change in their experience.”

However, there is still a risk of some users leaving Discord as a result of the age verification post. “We’re anticipating that there’s going to be some kind of hit there, and we’re incorporating that into what our plans look like,” Badalich says. “We will find other ways to bring users back.”