"Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month.""Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month."
Beginning in March, all accounts will have a ‘teen-appropriate experience by default.’
This will be the case for every major website that allows user uploaded content. Question is how long? Definitely within ten years. Five? I'm leaning towards three.
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.
Well that doesn't sound too bad. Just a little broken if you don't want to give them your ID or a face scan.
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.
Even if I didn't think this was a major move toward controlling access to information and what people say online, there's still the fact that they will inevitably leak your kyc data:
In October, one of Discord’s former third-party vendors suffered a data breach that exposed users’ age verification data, including images of government IDs.
But they say don't worry:
Badalich also says after the October data breach, Discord “immediately stopped doing any sort of age verification flows with that vendor” and is now using a different third-party vendor. She adds that, “We’re not doing biometric scanning [or] facial recognition. We’re doing facial estimation. The ID is immediately deleted. We do not keep any information around like your name, the city that you live in, if you used a birth certificate or something else, any of that information.”
I don't see how we avoid this. The natural next step is to "age-verify" at the internet access level.
>be 14
>internet is designed for 30 year olds
>wow i can't wait
>be in 30s
>internet is now designed for 14 year olds
Just build your own network. The tools exist.
do people still use discord?
I haven't checked my account in months
Yes it is very popular with younger internet users, gamers, lots of different groups as far as I'm able to see.
Idk I've hated it since the beginning. If Telegram is the plague, Discord is the WIV.
Wuhan Virus lol?
The Institute of Virology in the same place, yes. lol
+1000
<tennis clap>
I don't. but I hear their are people out there using it.
I think gamers use it
The permissioned internet era begins
"begins"?
Just need more snowflakes
How does a face scan alone prove age?
How would a 14 year get an ID? I would imagine in most places Driving age is above 14.
They don't care to prove age.
They only need to demonstrate they made enough of an effort to avoid liability.
In the article they say its an estimation. If they don't feel confident they will force the user to use some other method. I wonder if a false mustache would work...
Oh dear, all the anons won't have discord to yap in and will overwhelm 4chan again.
They can come to Stacker News. @anon's welcome
so true!
Fuck Discord and all the other platforms that will do the same.
AI-generated ID and an AI-filtered face scan. Problem solved. If most people do that, they will reconsider their dumb rules.
I wonder though if they can somehow infer from my connected email address that it was created in 2009..
Bye Discord... :-)
great news for nostr, hopefully discord is just the first of many others
I completely agree with your assessment regarding the trajectory towards ‘age-verifying at the internet access level.’ That specific point you raised about it being a certainty within the next 3-5 years is genuinely chilling and hits the core of the issue. This isn’t just about Discord applying rules; it feels like a fundamental shift in how we are allowed to communicate online. When biometric data or government IDs become the gatekeepers to digital spaces, the concept of digital anonymity—which is crucial for so many users, especially those with minority viewpoints or those who simply value their privacy—evaporates. The history of data breaches with third-party vendors using KYC data makes their reassurances ring completely hollow. We are rapidly moving towards a controlled, tiered internet, and it’s happening faster than anyone predicted.
More people will join Nostr