Discord has announced that it will start rolling out its age verification checks globally in March, getting ahead of the legislation that is being introduced by various regions around the world. All users will now have a “teen-appropriate” experience by default, with new settings, age-gated restrictions to more adult servers and spaces, and content filtering.
Building on the existing technology used for the UK, Australia, and other clamped down markets, Discord’s age verification will have two methods: facial age estimation scans and uploaded government IDs. In the former instance, they state that video selfies are processed on-device and will not be uploaded, while also stated that any uploaded IDs will be deleted “quickly”. Some users will be asked to provide multiple forms of age verification, and Discord is also using an age inference model to try and figure out if your account is adult from behaviours.
Without verifying, the following will be imposed:
- Content Filters: Discord users will need to be age-assured as adults in order to unblur sensitive content or turn off the setting.
- Age-gated Spaces – Only users who are age-assured as adults will be able to access age-restricted channels, servers, and app commands.
- Message Request Inbox: Direct messages from people a user may not know are routed to a separate inbox by default, and access to modify this setting is limited to age-assured adult users.
- Friend Request Alerts: People will receive warning prompts for friend requests from users they may not know.
- Stage Restrictions: Only age-assured adults may speak on stage in servers.
Naturally there is a large amount of pushback from the communities and users of the prevalent chat platform. A lot of people do not like this kind of verification and feel it to be a gross invasion of privacy, even with assurances. After all, Discord was able to leak a reported 70,000 government IDs last year, highlighting the main weakness in these kinds of systems: third party partners.
The vast majority of users should be able to get by without the addition verification, but there’s plenty reports of false positives and negatives from facial scans, especially within that tricky 16-20 year old age bracket. A lot of 17 year olds will get approved, a lot of 18 year olds won’t. This then brings the more troubling need for government ID to be uploaded, and if these IDs aren’t deleted quickly enough by Discord’s third party partners, that can be a weak point in security.
Discord has partnered with k-ID, which is also used by Meta and Snap, and Swiss company Privately for the facial scans. In a statement to Ars Technica, they state that “the Facial Age Estimation technology runs entirely on the user’s device in real time when they are performing the verification. That means there is no video or image transmitted, and the estimation happens locally. The only data to leave the device is a pass/fail of the age threshold which is what Discord receives (and some performance metrics that contain no personal data).”
