Discord announced on Monday that it’s rolling out age verification on its platform globally starting next month, when it will automatically set all users’ accounts to a “teen-appropriate” experience unless they demonstrate that they’re adults.

Users who aren’t verified as adults will not be able to access age-restricted servers and channels, won’t be able to speak in Discord’s livestream-like “stage” channels, and will see content filters for any content Discord detects as graphic or sensitive. They will also get warning prompts for friend requests from potentially unfamiliar users, and DMs from unfamiliar users will be automatically filtered into a separate inbox.

Direct messages and servers that are not age-restricted will continue to function normally, but users won’t be able to send messages or view content in an age-restricted server until they complete the age check process, even if it’s a server they were part of before age verification rolled out. Savannah Badalich, Discord’s global head of product policy, said in an interview with The Verge that those servers will be “obfuscated” with a black screen until the user verifies they’re an adult. Users also won’t be able to join any new age-restricted servers without verifying their age.

  • CumbrianCucumber@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    21 hours ago

    Direct messages and servers that are not age-restricted will continue to function normally

    So in other words, if you only use Discord as a messaging app and for small servers between friends, this won’t affect you?

    I honestly have no idea why Discord started trying to push itself as some normal social media like Facebook, and why people started treating it as such. Discord was a glorified telephone line with gifs and web links. I don’t need some manufactured sense of “community” among thousands of people who happen to watch the same YouTuber as me.

    • MathiasTCK@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      17 hours ago

      Discord is a vocal opponent of the laws requiring this stuff and helps the legal fights trying to stop this from becoming mandatory by law. My impression is they are doing what they think they legally have to in a growing number of countries and states.

      https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3meiroz7b322w

      " Discord is a member of Netchoice, the trade organization that’s fighting these laws in the US, and they’ve shown up for pretty much every lawsuit since they joined. I can’t say for certain[1] but I HIGHLY doubt they are doing this because they want to. "