Last October, hackers stole the government ID pictures of 70,000 users from a third-party service that manages Discord user data.
Discord takes a heavy-handed approach to growth by assuming all of its users are young people, unless proven otherwise.
In a new global plan starting this March, all new and existing users worldwide will automatically have a youth-friendly experience, with additional security measures around communication, age-restricted access to spaces and content filtering.
Older users on the platform will be required to go through an age verification process where they will be required to provide Discord’s third-party verification service with selfies and government IDs.
The company also uses an ‘age-inference’ model that monitors user behavior to determine whether they are elderly. This, he explained, will reduce the number of users bound by age verification.
The announcement comes a month after Bloomberg reported that Discord filed for a private initial public offering (IPO).
Discord, the most popular platform for video gamers, has over 200m active users worldwide. The minimum age to use Discord in Ireland is 16.
Although data on the number of minor users on Discord is not available, the platform has, in the past, been criticized for incidents of child sexual exploitation. In 2023, Discord joined the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation and banned teen dating and child sexual abuse content created with AI after a media investigation found illegal child-related activities on the site.
Discord’s method of age verification is different from other popular platforms like TikTok, which does not verify a user’s age while registering.
Meanwhile, in many parts of the world, TikTok, along with Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, monitors users’ behavior using AI tools to determine if they are true to their stated age. So are other platforms like YouTube, X and OpenAI.
Commenting on age verification techniques last year, University College Dublin cybersecurity expert Liliana Pasquale told SiliconRepublic.com: “This is an effective way to estimate age as it avoids the collection of sensitive information needed to verify age.
“However, these methods should be used to provide age-appropriate content to users” and not to determine their age, he added.
Data security is a key concern when it comes to participating in age verification on the platform, and Discord was quick to receive public criticism over its ‘auto-by-auto’ policies, which comes months after hackers stole the government ID photos of 70,000 users in breach of third-party law.
Governments, on the other hand, are trying to shut down youth social media altogether. Australia has become the first country in the world to ban social media for under-16s, while countries such as France, Spain and Greece are considering following suit.
The EU is also considering broader social media restrictions for under-16s. While Ireland hopes to introduce child safety measures on social media “incrementally”.
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