Back in early February, popular messaging app Discord announced that it would roll out age verification in order to keep its teenage users safe on the platform. By the end of the month, after facing significant backlash, Discord announced that it would be pausing that rollout while addressing some of the issues.
According to Discord, those age verification checks will now be rolling out.
Discord has launched a system that already estimates users’ ages based on several factors, such as general activity levels, communities and servers joined, games that an account is connected to, and how old a user account is.
The company has also assured users that no messages, calls, or other content have been analyzed to make an age determination.
Discord must believe in its model, as the company says that 90 percent of its users will not have to do or change a thing. However, Discord knows that mistakes will be made. The company says that any user can check the age group they’ve been assigned to by going to User Settings and checking Account Status.
The main backlash against Discord’s age verification system centered on the privacy and security concerns that came with the facial age estimation and ID upload methods. Discord says that if a user has to verify their age, there are now additional methods to do so that don’t require facial age estimation or ID verification. These alternative methods include a credit card authorization, allowing the Apple App Store or Google Play Store to share a user’s age range, a Google Wallet confirmation, or an AgeKey credential.
Adult users on Discord will notice no changes to how the platform works. Teenage users will still be able to message friends, join voice calls, and join non-age-restricted servers. However, age-restricted content and spaces will be blocked. In addition, extra safety protections have been added in cases where a non-friend attempts to message a teenage user.
Discord says it has already launched age verification checks in places like Texas, where it’s required, and wants to get ahead of age verification laws as they expand globally.
