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.

  • uniquethrowagay@feddit.orgEnglish
    90·
    1 day ago

    The German passport ID card (and I’m sure many others) has a NFC chip in it and you can use it with an open source app to securely prove your identity online. In cases like this, the only information pulled from your ID would be “over 18” or “not over 18”.

    It’s one of the few things my government did right in the digital space. And yet almost nobody in the private sector uses this. I’m tired of being asked to upload a photo of my ID for age verification.

    • Takios@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      491·
      1 day ago

      Of course they don’t use it. They want your data, not just your age. As long as the government does not make using ID this way for age verification mandatory*, companies will continue to use processes that give them the most data that they can sell.

      *: As in not making verification mandatory but if a company wants to do it they must to it this way

      • sqgl@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        21 hours ago

        In Australia digital ID is not mandatory (though the government tried to make it so).

        We were the first with these adult filters.

        I don’t know if a system similar to Germany was proposed but there is a security problem with having all our data collated on a government server.

      • uniquethrowagay@feddit.orgEnglish
        3·
        1 day ago

        Our (privatized) mail service offers an identification process to third parties where you either walk into a post office with your physical ID card or you make a video call with a call center and show it to them. I don’t think they transmit any more data than “over 18 yes/no”. So while data hording might often be the reason, I don’t think it’s the only one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

        • General_Effort@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          20 hours ago

          I heard that the reason why no one uses the ID card option is that the privatized post office lobbied the government to make it so expensive as not to compete with their service.

    • MissyBee@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      6·
      1 day ago

      The German ID card can do this, not the passport. Just checked because I would love to use this feature. My ID card chip is broken. Gotta wait till renewal then.