Discord slammed over age verification face scan controversy
www.newsweek.com
Discord users are unhappy with the platform's decision to roll out age verification requirements for adult user accounts starting in March.

Starting in early March, the platform will place every account into a default “teen-appropriate” experience unless it has proof that users are adults.

The move has brought widespread criticism from Discord users, who are citing privacy and security concerns following a recent breach of a third-party vendor that ended up exposing around 70,000 government ID images used to verify the age of Discord users.

  • bearboiblake@pawb.socialEnglish
    1142·
    4 hours ago

    Discord age restrictions prevent an underage user from viewing - but not sending - nude pictures.

    This isn’t to protect kids. It’s to enforce increasingly authoritarian control over the web.

    • Tetsuo@jlai.luEnglish
      622·
      3 hours ago

      Any source for this ?

      The official announcement is quite vague and since the feature isn’t out it’s hard to know how it will work exactly.

      Also, I assume the biggest risk isn’t for teens to send nudes “unprompted” but to let adults contact them and ask for them.

      This for example is very vague :

      Age-gated Spaces – Only users who are age-assured as adults will be able to access age-restricted channels, servers, and app commands.

      So if a teen can only interact with other teens on dedicated spaces it should make it harder for perverts to ask for stuff.

      And if an adult tries to pretend to be a teen he will only see blurred content ?

      I’m sure many will think I’m trying to defend Discord on this but I’m not. Again we dont really know how this update will work. I’m just trying to make sure we dont spread misinformation.

      There will be plenty of time to criticize Discord when they push this update.

      What I’m sure of is that discord was definitely a platform of choice for many bad people to hunt and groom teens.

      Personally, it’s the fact that discord says they will delete my verification data :

      Identity documents submitted to our vendor partners are deleted quickly— in most cases, immediately after age confirmation.

      In most cases ? Really ? Is that supposed to look trustworthy ?

      • eleijeep@piefed.socialEnglish
        211·
        2 hours ago

        So if a teen can only interact with other teens on dedicated spaces it should make it harder for perverts to ask for stuff.

        There is no age verification to prove you’re a teen. The age verification is to prove that you’re an adult.

        • Tetsuo@jlai.luEnglish
          515·
          2 hours ago

          Please read the end of my message.

          If you are a teen “by default” you will have all the restrictions of a teen until you prove you are an adult.

          So an adult with ill intentions should either be :

          • A teen by default and therefore have many limitations.
          • An adult that have limitations in reaching to teens.

          Again it’s what the very vague statement of Discord says. We also have no clue how their “inference model for age classification” works either…