Discord rolls out age verification, citing expanding laws

Vishnevskiy stated that over 90% of Discord users will not need to undergo direct age verification. Instead, the platform will leverage existing account data, including tenure, device and activity information, and usage patterns, to predict whether an account likely belongs to an adult or a teen using a machine learning model. Discord clarified that message content, profile data, or demographic attributes are not used for age estimation. The company explained that the patterns of how typical teens and adults use the platform differ significantly in aggregate, allowing the model to learn these distinctions.

Discord emphasized that this process does not involve collecting new user data, as such data retention is standard for social media companies. The company was able to train its model on confirmed data linking user behavior to age due to prior requirements for age assurance technology in certain regions. If the automated system is not confident a user is an adult, an appeal process allows for age verification through a credit card or age group data from Apple App Store or Google Play Store accounts, without requiring biometric or ID scans.

For confirmed adults, the platform experience will remain unchanged. However, teen accounts will face restrictions, including being blocked from accessing age-restricted servers or channels. They will also have message requests from non-friends directed to a separate inbox and will receive alerts when accepting friend requests from individuals without mutual friends.

Experts caution that age verification measures, while intended to protect children online, can introduce new privacy and security issues, presenting platforms like Discord with a dilemma between compliance and potential sanctions.