Discord has announced a major change coming to the service as part of its aim to improve teen safety features. Starting in March, all users globally will be required to submit age verification via a face scan or submitted ID, or be given teen-level access restrictions.

Discord will soon give all users teen-level access until age verification has been approved

Age verification across apps and social platforms has been an increased focus of legislative bodies around the world in the last couple years.

In response, Discord has announced a major initiative to ensure that only adults see adult-designated content, while teens are restricted to age-appropriate access.

To do this, Discord says all users worldwide will have their accounts updated to a teen designation by default. This will bring “updated communication settings, restricted access to age-gated spaces, and content filtering.”

Adults will need to verify their age via a face scan or by submitting their ID—in some cases both will be required. Per Discord’s blog post:

Discord users can choose to use facial age estimation or submit a form of identification to its vendor partners, with more options coming in the future. Additionally, Discord will implement its age inference model, a new system that runs in the background to help determine whether an account belongs to an adult, without always requiring users to verify their age. Some users may be asked to use multiple methods if more information is needed to assign an age group.

Discord says the age verification rollout will begin “in early March.”

Discord outlines user privacy protections for verification process

Last fall, Discord drew a lot of attention when a data breach impacted one of its third-party vendors that handled user IDs for age verification.

Here’s what Discord is promising as privacy protections for its age verification process this time around:

• On-device processing: Video selfies for facial age estimation never leave a user’s device.
• Quick deletion: Identity documents submitted to our vendor partners are deleted quickly— in most cases, immediately after age confirmation.
• Straightforward verification: In most cases, users complete the process once and their Discord experience adapts to their verified age group. Users may be asked to use multiple methods only when more information is needed to assign an age group.
• Private status: A user’s age verification status cannot be seen by other users. 

To read more details about what exactly will be restricted when a user’s age isn’t verified, see Discord’s full post here.

How do you feel about the trend toward age verification in apps like Discord? Let us know in the comments.

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