Discord have rolled out a revised global age verification system, having delayed deploying one earlier this year following largely privacy-based backlash.
The revised system outlined by in a blog post by Discord chief technology officer Stanislav Vishnevskiy relies a lot more heavily on automatically estimating your age via aspects of your account, rather than defaulting to asking for facial age estimation or ID forms.
“We’ll automatically place you in an age group using account signals, like how long your account has existed and the kinds of servers you’re part of,” Vishnevskiy wrote. “We use multiple account signals to determine age groups at an accuracy level matching what’s possible with biometrics. No single server determines your age group, and we don’t look at your messages, calls, or other content to decide which age group you’re in.” The three age groups the tech can place accounts in are adult (no restrictions), teen (some restrictions), and unconfirmed (also some restrictions). You can find which one you’ve been lumped into via the account status bit of your user settings.
In terms of proving your age manually, Discord stressed they’ve added more options to the list of ways you can do so, with some not requiring a video selfie or ID. Credit card verification via Stripe, Google Wallet’s ID pass, a “reusable age credential” called AgeKey, and permitting either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store to share the age range they’ve got logged for you are all now potentially on the table depending on where you live and your device. “We’ve vetted every method, and the data you provide to us and our vendors is only ever used to determine your age group, so you can pick whichever option you’re most comfortable with,” Vishnevskiy wrote.
If you’re concerned about how any of the age verification works beyond what’s detailed in the blog post or where your data might end up, Discord have published separate docs with more detail on third-party age assurance vendors and what they store, how their age estimation model works, how to spoiler tag channels without age-gating, and the transparency reports they’ve begun putting out to show how their age assurance is affecting users in practice.
“By launching a global approach with non-biometric options, we’re getting ahead of laws that might ask us to implement something less privacy-focused,” Vishnevskiy added. “The decisions policymakers make now will shape how platforms advance both teen safety and privacy for years to come, and I encourage people to make their perspectives heard where they live.”
We’ll see if adding a bunch of extra money-related verification options and being a bit more open about data use does soften the blow enough that Discord don’t end up shouted into another delay.