Discord’s age verification era is upon us, despite community backlash

According to Discord, 90% of users will not have to verify their age. Starting Wednesday, Discord, the community messaging platform, will roll out age verification measures to all users. The rollout comes after the company initially delayed its age verification plans in February due to backlash from users concerned that biometric scans and ID checks could jeopardize their privacy. Those concerns weren’t unfounded; last year, a third-party vendor that works with Discord was breached, potentially exposing the data of 70,000 users’ data, including government ID photos and selfies used for identity verification. “Age assurance draws strong opinions and skepticism, especially when it involves sharing biometric information or a form of ID,” Discord CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy wrote in a blog post, published Tuesday.

“At the same time, age assurance laws are expanding, and since my last post we’ve had to launch age assurance in other regions, including in Brazil and in Texas.” However, Vishnevskiy says more than 90% of Discord users won’t have to verify their age. He explains that Discord will instead use existing account data to detect “signals,” like account tenure (how long an account has existed), device and activity data, and other usage patterns, to determine whether a user belongs in the adult, teen, or unconfirmed age group. Discord says that it doesn’t estimate users’ ages based on