Discord takes a second swing at age verification, but don't worry, this time it'll guess how old you are with 90% accuracy

After facing stiff opposition and debate from various quarters, Discord is once again attempting to meet legal requirements by deploying an age verification system that minimizes intrusion. How is this being achieved? Through an "age estimation model" that attempts to determine a user's age based on their account behavior patterns, rather than scrutinizing their messages, calls, or other content.

This model identifies distinct usage patterns between typical teenagers and adults, enabling it to estimate whether an account belongs to an adult (18+) or a teenager (13-17).

The age estimation model considers various factors, including the communities, servers, and games users interact with, their general activity levels (such as the number of channels or servers they actively participate in), and account history (like how old their account is). The model learns these patterns and uses them to estimate the likelihood of an account belonging to an adult or a teen.

The origin of this age estimation model dates back to February 9, when Discord announced that users would be confined to a "teen-appropriate experience" if they failed to verify their age. However, it's worth noting that this still involved an age inference system, similar to the one proposed now.

The rollout faced legal scrutiny on February 13 when it was revealed that the project had connections to Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel via Persona. By February 24, Discord had postponed the verification rollout and clarified that Persona did not meet the privacy standards required. Discord decided to attempt the implementation once more on September 22 of this year.