Age verification for all.

Discord announced on Monday that it’s rolling out age verification on its platform globally starting next month, when it will automatically set all users’ accounts to a “teen-appropriate” experience unless they demonstrate that they’re adults.

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.

Direct messages and servers that are not age-restricted will continue to function normally, 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. Savannah Badalich, Discord’s global head of product policy, said in an interview with The Verge that those servers will be “obfuscated” with a black screen until the user verifies they’re an adult. Users also won’t be able to join any new age-restricted servers without verifying their age.

  • timestatic@feddit.orgEnglish
    14·
    2 hours ago

    Yeah… No how about we just stop using Discord and move to something more decentralized like Matrix

  • melfie@lemy.lolEnglish
    49·
    3 hours ago

    Tired of so many discussions being locked away in Discord, so hopefully they ramp this up and require identification to do anything so everyone will move to a more open platform.

    • Virtvirt588@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      3 hours ago

      Discord and github are the two platforms barely anyone dares to speak about. The Foss community barely mentions the usage of such platforms, despite nearly all of projects use discord as the support line.

      It is really such a shame, since those projects make a significant contribution to open source software in one area. but just shits itself in the other.

      • jacksilver@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        4 minutes ago

        At least public githubs aren’t difficult to access and/or crawl. The big issue with Discord is that there is a wealth of information locked behind a proprietary system.

        Unlike forums or even reddit, there is not way to get to most of the information posted on discord.

    • innermachine@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 hour ago

      What discussions happen on discord? I’m late 20s and play video games regularly and I have never used it. Thought it was where people streamed themselves playing video games or selling bathwater or whatever. Back in the day my home boys and I used to chat on teamspeak while gaming, but who has time for that shit anymore? My gaming is almost all single player or with the wifey 3 feet to my left lol.

      • VinnyDaCat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        1 hour ago

        What discussions happen on discord?

        You ever have an issue with anything and you find the answer on some random reddit discussion that ends up in your search results when you’re looking around?

        Discord isn’t really like the older methods of chatting, where people used platforms to chat for the sake of chatting. Entire communities from forums decided to just upend everything and move into discord. Niche software and other files are often shared among discord communities, or assistance for said files and programs is offered only through specific discord communities.

        The platform is still better than anything we had back in the day, it’s just that for some reason people have decided that everything needs to be stored in there.

        Anyway, I don’t see much changing. People will probably attempt to take this culture onto whatever new platform they move onto.

  • AgentBoom@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    2 hours ago

    Now Discord users are furious and canceling Nitro. I wonder where they will go if the update gets released.

    • AFK BRB Chocolate (CA version)@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      1 hour ago

      Doesn’t look like you’ll be affected for that. If I’m understanding the release right, it’s only needed if you’re trying to access age restricted content or to get messages from people you might not know. I use it the way you do, and it doesn’t look like that’s impacted.

      • moonburster@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        16 minutes ago

        Good one. Seems that it also isn’t “everyone”. They have a certain check where they believe you are an adult. We’ll see

  • Suavevillain@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    3 hours ago

    I trust the scammers who call me daily with my ID more than a Discord third party vendor. They just wanted a google play card. Discord wants personal info. This age of censorship is terrible. If it was about about protecting kids just get parents to use modern parental block controls.

  • Spaniard@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    2 hours ago

    If government, the ones that issue those documents, are insecure and untrustworthy what more about shorty companies with questionable products? I have already informed the people in one of the servers I use that the moment they ask me for Auth like that I am out.

    I never wanted to use it but had to due to friends, this is my exit.

  • BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    5·
    2 hours ago

    So the general consensus amongst my various friend groups and servers I’m in is that fuck this, time to abandon ship. Was wondering what the straw would be for this service.

      • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.todayEnglish
        5·
        1 hour ago

        Very much wrong. I had to write my username (with the numbers too) next to me. Fun fact: I could not access my Discord, so could not see my exact username, so a friend saved me over Reddit, by sending me my username. I also needed my ID next to me, I had to take a picture. I of course, got the news that my personal information was leaked from support, some time later.

        How nice.

        • hector@lemmy.todayEnglish
          2·
          56 minutes ago

          Jesus, I wish you hadn’t done that, it just encourages them. Isn’t it convenient they never promise not to use this personal information for commercial purposes. Not that a promise means dick with these parasites running these places.

          With like twitter, they allowed influence agents to run amok and then when they get flak for it the solution is to demand commercially valuable information from users to prove whom they are.

          So they made you present your username, your ID, and your own face?

          Next time, doctor an ID with the details of like Pharoh Ramsey or something, I saw someone doing that for an ID thing.

        • MrKoyun@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 hour ago

          Wow! I had checked these guys out a long while ago. It seems they’ve gotten a fresh coat of paint. I should revisit it. Maybe convince my friends to switch…

        • hurn@lemmy.zipEnglish
          4·
          3 hours ago

          Anyone else not receiving the verification email? Doesn’t seem to work for me.

          • paequ2@lemmy.todayEnglish
            3·
            3 hours ago

            I think it took a long time for me the first time. They seem way smaller than Discord, so I imagine they don’t have the fastest infrastructure. Also, I signed up with a non-gmail account and their verification email did make it through eventually.

        • Zetta@mander.xyzEnglish
          2·
          3 hours ago

          No VOIP? That’s the only reason I ever use discord, when my friends force me to so I can talk while we play games. Guess teamspeak is still king

          • mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
            1·
            1 hour ago

            No video call or screen share either from what I can tell, which is uhhh pretty major to day the least. That said, it’s not like I need only use one platform at a time. I’ll probably get on that and start using it and hope that they add those things in the future. But yeah, I’m not sure if I would call it close to Discord right now.

            • Zetta@mander.xyzEnglish
              3·
              1 hour ago

              No just voice channels, I’m glad they have them but it was completely missing from their marketing on the website. Just says “text channels done right” and there isn’t a single lime about voice support

  • hector@lemmy.todayEnglish
    4·
    2 hours ago

    Good time to drop these companies. I’ve never used discord, not even sure what it is exactly. I’m sure they eat bags of corporate dicks now though. Drop every company that does age checks. They are doing you a favor, if the government got to them here, they will get to them in ways that make these companies worthless and dangerous to you.

    Quit forever any site that introduces age checks, and that includes youtube and facebook.