The beginning of a shift?
- Annabel Turner
- Apr 25
- 2 min read
Did you know that Discord has introduced facial scanning this week? We’d love you to understand this and other changes that will be coming very soon...
With the Online Safety Act coming into force, there has been lots of news recently around expected changes on major online platforms.
Part of what we want to do over the coming weeks is keep you up to speed with these changes and help you to feel more confident in navigating them with your families and the children you support as they progress.
New regulations require platforms that host adult content to introduce age verification processes by July this year. No one yet knows exactly what this will look like on each platform, but it should mean obvious changes to their look and feel.
The first major change came this week with Discord introducing new age verification technology. Originally designed for gamers, Discord has grown into a popular social platform for all kinds of online communities.
Discord’s age verification has been described as the ‘start of a bigger shift’ in online safety. But what does this actually look like on the platform? And...
What does this mean?
At the moment this age check will only be prompted when a user tries to view content that has been flagged as sensitive, or tries to change content filter settings.
Users will be given 2 options – either upload a photo of your ID or let Discord scan your face using your device’s camera. The facial scanning process involves users taking a video selfie, which is then analysed by AI to estimate your age. This reflects a similar age check system introduced by Instagram in 2022 for users trying to change their age setting to over 18.
The platform has not yet introduced an age check for all users, so the change will not stop children and young people using the platform from seeing all harmful content or comments, or from being contacted in the app.
Over the next few months, we are going to see lots of changes like this on major platforms. Navigating constant headlines and changes can be overwhelming – we will be here to track the important updates, and to share from children how the changes look for them and are impacting them.
If you have any questions about Discord’s new age checks, or age verification or age assurance in general, just drop them in the comments or DM us privately.
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