Discord age verification rolls out today with changes spurred by user backlash

Discord, the popular community messaging platform, will begin implementing age verification measures for all users starting Wednesday. This announcement follows an initial delay in February due to user concerns over privacy issues associated with biometric scans and ID checks. The backlash was understandable; just last year, a vendor working with Discord experienced a data breach that potentially exposed the information of 70,000 users, including government IDs and selfies.

Discord's Chief Technology Officer, Stanislav Vishnevskiy, acknowledged that age assurance has sparked strong opinions and skepticism, particularly when it involves sharing biometric information or forms of ID. Nevertheless, he emphasized the necessity of age assurance, as laws regarding age verification are becoming more stringent.

In response, Discord will use existing account data to identify signals that can determine whether a user falls into the adult, teen, or unconfirmed age category. The company's machine learning model has been trained to recognize patterns in users' behavior, such as account tenure, device usage, and interaction patterns, that distinguish typical teenage and adult usage.

Contrary to concerns, Discord will not collect new user data for age verification; it will rely on the data it already possesses. If Discord is uncertain about a user's age, the individual can still prove their age by providing a credit card or age data from their Apple or Google Play accounts. For confirmed adults, the platform's functionality remains unchanged.

However, teens' accounts will be barred from accessing age-restricted servers or channels and will receive additional protections, such as message requests from non-friends being directed to a separate inbox and alerts when accepting friend requests from unknown individuals.

As age verification requirements continue to emerge globally, experts caution that these measures might introduce unforeseen privacy and security challenges. Discord now faces the challenge of balancing compliance with these evolving regulations and the potential privacy risks it could entail.