Discord, a social media app popular with video gamers, will now require all of its 200 million worldwide users to prove their age.
In a blog post on Monday, the start-up said it would make all accounts by default ‘teen appropriate’, restricting which servers they can chat on.
When a Metro reporter verified their age, the mobile app asked them to either take a video selfie or scan their government-issued ID.
The scan uses AI to estimate a person’s age, asking them to look to the sides and open and shut their mouth.
Discord says that whether it’s a selfie or an ID upload, neither is stored anywhere but the device and is deleted afterwards for your safety.
The way people use the messaging app is also considered, with Discord directly messaging people their results on the app.
‘We determined you’re in the adult age group,’ the message reads.
What is Discord?
Discord is a social media and messaging platform created by Jason Citron, a video game player and computer programmer.
The platform is mainly used by people to chat with one another while playing video games.
Unlike Facebook or Instagram, there’s no central social feed or timeline. Instead, users join servers designed for specific groups or interests. Each is further divided into topics.
Some of the largest servers include Midjourney, the app’s AI image generator, and one about the video game series Marvel Rivals.
There are also private, invite-only Discord servers.
Until users do this, sensitive content will be blurred and they won’t be able to access certain servers, akin to forum chat rooms.
Direct messages from people a user may not know are also routed to a separate inbox, a function they can’t switch off.
They’ll also receive a warning for friend requests from a stranger.
Discord already rolled out the policy in Australia and the UK in response to the Aussie social media ban for under-16s and the UK’s Online Safety Act.
The law, which went into effect last year, introduced age-verification requirements for pornography and social media websites and apps.
However, when Discord began complying last year, users discovered they could swerve age verification by showing their character in the video game series, Death Standing.
The loophole has since been fixed.
Tech privacy experts have previously expressed alarm about age checks and their safety, given that a hack in October saw the IDs of 70,000 Discord users leaked.
Hackers targeted the third-party verification platform Discord uses, rather than the site itself.
The leaked data may involve personal information, partial credit card details and messages, Discord admitted at the time.
No information regarding what a user discussed with Discord’s customer service team was leaked.
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