Discord Co-Founder Admits Age Check Privacy Missteps, What’s Next

The team at Discord introduced some discord to our newsroom today. First, a company representative sent us a statement requiring us to update a previous article on its "Teen-By-Default" policy, and then it turned around and dropped a new announcement outlining changes to the policy and how the rollout is being delayed until later this year. The change looks to be less controversial, since while Discord will still demand select users verify their age in some way, facial age estimation or ID checks will only be required in territories where laws are in place that necessitate it. Otherwise, additional verification options are in development, including credit card verification. That piece of information is huge, since it means the large swath of Discord Nitro users, and others who have payment information on file, should already be flagged as adult users by Discord, and thus have little reason to concern themselves with being forced to provide an ID.


As Discord states in its blog post on the matter, "the specific way age assurance works (the verification methods, the compliance requirements) is being shaped by legislation already in effect in the UK and Australia, with Brazil quick to follow, and Europe and multiple US states close behind. By building this ourselves, we can show regulators that it's possible to verify age without collecting identity." According to Discord, this means that for 90% plus of users, nothing will change, thanks to the existing age determination systems including payment methods on file and what types of servers you're in. This technology "does not read your messages, analyze your conversations, or look at the content you post," and the full methodology will be published "before global launch".

More importantly, Discord is also committing to providing options beyond ID checks for the under 10% of users who are estimated to be minors. Even for those within that group who don't verify, the "only thing that changes is that you won't be able to access age-restricted content or change certain default safety settings designed to protect teens. Nothing else about your Discord experience changes." Discord is also committing to vendor transparency, which means that they will "document every verification vendor and their practices on our website, and make it clear in the product who each vendor is. We've also set a new requirement: any partner offering facial age estimation must perform it entirely on-device. If they don't meet that bar, we won't work with them." A similar rule is in place for ID card verification, wherein Discord demands that partners keep information only for the minimum time necessary, which should mean it's deleted immediately.

The delete immediately or keep it on device policy is actually why Discord chose not to keep the controversial Persona firm as a verification partner, with Discord co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy clearly stating in the original blog post that "Persona did not meet that bar." The full blog post goes into more detail and sheds light on how Discord is approaching this sensitive matter, even acknowledging why some users may be particularly anxious due to a previous age verification partner being breached. While a somewhat age-gated Internet may or may not be inevitable based on the changing legal landscape of our times, Discord does seem to be making a real effort to keep the trust and privacy of its users intact, and for that we commend them.