discord. the platform that has a huge pedophile problem? the platform that’s sympathetic towards conservative shitheads?
that discord?
Discord will restrict your account next month unless you scan ID or face
Submitted 1 month ago by criss_cross@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
https://9to5google.com/2026/02/09/discord-age-restrictions-default-face-id-scans/
Comments
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 month ago
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 month ago
Discord’s updated privacy approach is “teen-by-default,” the company said in an announcement today. This means that, starting in March, all users on Discord will have their accounts partially restricted to the experience you’d get if you were under the age of 13.
I’m fine with that. I don’t need porn on Discord.
stressballs@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Then they will decide that links to some news stories aret appropriate for kids.No more pesky videos of ICE executing people in the street.
captcha_incorrect@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It also includes other functions that is not NSFW. Nothing that I personally care about but might be a deal breaker for bigger communities.
Discord breaks down the restrictions as follows:
- 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.
WoodScientist@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Are you one of those pornographic people? Large swathes of the population are considered intrinsically pornographic by the authors of these laws. Queer people are walking talking pornography simply for existing. Also most politics and any news dealing with violent events is pornographic.
Have you ever shared a story about police brutality? You are a pornographer.
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 month ago
I’m fine with not talking about police brutality on discord. I used it when I was contributing to some open source projects and no one talked about gender or politics there. People with different needs should probably switch.
orenj@lemmy.sdf.org 1 month ago
this is making my ttrpg group actually consider letting me host stuff for them and I’m unironically thrilled… so like, matrix is the way, right? Or should I be looking at mumble or something?
Joeffect@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Good Ole team speak
Arke@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
I’m very interested in this question too. I tried Mumble but it looks like it does not support screen streaming which honestly is pretty good. 99% of my discord use since I stopped playing wow is just hanging around with 3 friends of mine and speaking about crap. We like to play or watch movies together and it’s nice to be able to share stuff.
Sabata11792@ani.social 1 month ago
Same, screen sharing in a group chat is a must. Been looking at Matrix/Element but it looks like hell to set up and maintain and I’m the only one with the setup to run it.
who@feddit.org 1 month ago
My TTRPG groups use Matrix for text and Mumble for voice. It works well.
We don’t use video, so I can’t vouch for that. The Matrix client called Element currently does it using Jitsi, and there’s a new approach in development that will eventually be supported by more Matrix clients: call.element.io
sakuraba@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
it depends, what features do your group need? only voicechat? mumble will do
orenj@lemmy.sdf.org 1 month ago
Ideally text chat with shitposting capabilities.
Hond@piefed.social 1 month ago
I’m on discord for piracy and modding. Sure over the years i joined a few other channels. But most foss adjacent channels have matrix bridges. idgaf. if servers required my phone number i always just left the server. discord wont get shit.
recklessengagement@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Does anyone know any good tools/methods for archiving entire servers/all your DMs?
SemiAuto@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
I used this one before, worked great. github.com/Tyrrrz/DiscordChatExporter
thatradomguy@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Big brother, is that you?
theblurstoftimes@leminal.space 1 month ago
Rest in peace then
Earthman_Jim@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Oh. Okay, stupids. Bye.
Walk_blesseD@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Half of Lemmy, for some reason: grr we hate kids!!! Ban them from social media!!!!
Lemmy users when platforms start doing as they asked: 😮
Zorque@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Almost like social sites arent monolithic, and different people can be outraged by different things!
Walk_blesseD@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Are you surprised that the blunt instrument of boomer legislation is operating without the nuance you’d like?
Janx@piefed.social 1 month ago
Bye, bitch! Discord has sucked for a while anyway…
sommerset@thelemmy.club 1 month ago
In us too? I’m not giving my license
Glide@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
The only way to get around this would be to verify your age, which Discord says can be accomplished in one of two ways. The first is to “submit a form of identification” to Discord vendors (i.e. scan your physical ID), or to use “facial age estimation.” Discord says that the latter process happens fully on-device, as “video selfies for facial age estimation never leave a user’s device.” For ID scans, Discord says that documents “are deleted quickly.”
Between the features that are limiting being almost entirely things I don’t want anyway (random friend invites are literally just fucking scams and ads to begin with), and the entire process being completed on-device… What is this, some slow news day? Everyone is losing their minds about this being some insane overstep like Discord is asking for a blood dample, or even a photo of your driver’s license.
Don’t get me wrong, fuck this age verification nonsense, but it’s pretty clear this is some very specific government regulatory appeasement where Discord is attempting to avoid culpability for holding data at basically every joint possible. They already have the useful, farmable data, like geolocation, age/gender demographics and interests. They don’t want our government ID. They only want a “yes” or “no” from their app.
Must be a slow news day. Everyone’s blowing this up in headlines for cheap clicks.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Don’t get me wrong, fuck this age verification nonsense, but it’s pretty clear this is some very specific government regulatory appeasement where Discord is attempting to avoid culpability for holding data at basically every joint possible.
That’s 100% what it is. It also sincerely makes me not want to use Discord, because even if this is what governments want, it’s extremely bad for users.
Pika@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I’m waiting for some government to outlaw collecting the information in general outside of official government agencies. I would love to see big tech squirm as they try to figure out a valid way to harvest the data in one country, but prevent it in another.
cecilkorik@piefed.ca 1 month ago
That’s fine if that’s your personal response. This still feels like a misdirected and ultimately useless response though.
This is a government-created problem. Are we expecting widespread boycotts of Discord to change the government’s mind? Of course not.
If it’s extremely bad for users, then users need to change their government. Yeah, yeah, I know the excuses for not doing that, they don’t listen, we are all powerless, it is the way it is, yadda yadda. It’s a lie. We are powerful, they want us feeling powerless so we can’t challenge them. Fuck that, challenge them. Government exists to represent us, it can exist in perpetuity only with our active and ongoing consent and participation. If people in totalitarian countries can overthrow their governments, so can we, we don’t have to do it overnight, we don’t have to do it over this one single isolated issue, but we can at least start working against them, eroding the structures that support them. Fuck governments like these, figure out ways to twist their arm, make things more difficult for them, and eventually, if we keep at it, we’ll get what we want. We hold the power here, not them. We decide what kind of society we want to live in. We need to stop abdicating our responsibilities as citizens and actively fight against this shit.
Katana314@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I might consider the facial verification thing if someone fulfills a security audit that both verifies the photo is never sent, encrypted or not, and it does not stay on the device’s drive.
But yeah, part of me hopes some number of privacy focused companies will just abandon business in these locations and claim “It’s only a matter of time before they reverse course for security failures, we will just wait until then.”
AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Doesn’t look like this will affect everyone. From the release:
- 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.
I don’t use any of those.
borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
If the DM filters treat people with mutual, large, public servers as people you may know and does not filter those chats, most users will probably be like you and be largely unimpacted. If it treats people with those types of mutual servers as people you may not know and does filter those DMs, Discord is shooting themselves in the foot. 99% of my Discord usage is finding people to squad with in online games, and no one like staying in voice channels in the official game servers.
Gobbel2000@programming.dev 1 month ago
The restrictions don’t seem very limiting. Why would I ever do this?
NatakuNox@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Whelp. US based tech is going to shit. Bail now before your data becomes state property.
RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Already deleted!
imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
According to this article they just blocking access to adult channels and content. You may still use discord but not be able to view adult chat groups, pictures and other content if you haven’t scanned your face or uploaded ID.
Seems fair to be honest. Children on Discord been exposed to adult content some which adults would be disgusted by. Not to count pedophilia en masse and seems to be uncontrollable. Discord was not supposed to be a tool for sharing porn anyway. Maybe it would bring some good into the situation.
Airowird@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Except “for the children” as argument to give up privacy never actually works.
Kids will find porn elsewhere, on shadier sites with even less moderators looking out for them. This has been true since the first dirty magazine in the woods has been found. The solution isn’t banning them, it’s educating them to treat it in a proper way. But that ofc takes effort and doesn’t let policy makers villify people.
Meanwhile the adults have to give up their privacy for no real effect. Or the porn makers just move to a platform without PII and we can repeat this dance again in a couple of years.
imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
By your logic, we might also remove “Are you 18+?” questions from mainstream porn sites, cause children might not lie and go to a shadier site where it will not ask for their age.
Man. I am not even sure if Discord is better than some shady porn sites. Cause unless you are from another galaxy, you probably heard not so “child friendly” stories about what children been exposed on some lesser known discord channels. Some of the times the content is something you’d struggle to find in open web.
In any case, children would find explicit content anywhere else if they want to. So there is no particular reason to be afraid of ID verification since it doesn’t necessary change that fact.
Crackhappy@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yep. This is how it starts.
THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Teamspeak and Vent, now is your time to shine.
hkwln@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Do you have any suggestions for a better/open-source alternative?
Babalugats@feddit.uk 1 month ago
A few mentioned here, with them recommending mumble
KiwiTB@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Back to mumble, sigh
YouTalkinToMe@lemmy.wtf 1 month ago
Good I’m still on Teamspeak 2
YeahIgotskills2@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I only use the platform to manage my dodgy IPTV subscription. Presumably they’ll be ditching Discord as well once they realise that they need to provide ID.
rumba@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
There are dodgy alternatives that require nothing of the sort. :)
sommerset@thelemmy.club 1 month ago
Wait really? Wtfff
OldQWERTYbastard@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I never had a need for discord and never will. Good riddance.
Fox@lemmy.world 1 month ago
This is not good… not sure if I will continue to use Discord.
Nomorereddit@lemmy.today 1 month ago
I don’t wanna react to this, read this article, or change my habits. Plz send help.
Don’t expect me to read your reply tho. I dont wanna
stopforgettingit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Any active Matrix spaces anyone can recommend to me? I joined a few from the public directory but they all seem dead.
Draconic_NEO@chatgptjailbreak.tech 1 month ago
I will not verify my face to these transphobic pigs
Panda@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Would the best alternative still be something like Matrix/Element or is there something new/better out there?
The problem with these things is that it’s really hard to convince others to move to a better platform.
Earthman_Jim@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Tom from MySpace needs to have a second coming.
ameancow@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Dark Tom needs to rise to kick the internet’s ass and create a new, old internet that has no algorithms or bots.
I guess we would need some way to confirm the users aren’t AI or bad actors so we would need to use kind of face reco- oh, I see. We’re trapped in hell.
sakuraba@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
SpaceHey exists, but just like the old internet moderation is a problem in that site (lots of harassing)
kamen@lemmy.world 1 month ago
He’d need to come up with something new. MySpace was sold some years ago.
bridgeburner@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Back in the day before Discord, people used Teamspeak, not sure if it is still around, tho.
MarcomachtKuchen@feddit.org 1 month ago
Teamspeak is still out there and I use it regularly. Since I’ve never cared about the posting aspect of discord they offer the exact same services.
ameancow@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I am never going to convince my younger family members to change platform, they literally keep discord on 24/7 with their friends and SO’s and keep lobbies open around the clock to wander in and play games and stream and thrive in the social space.
It’s horrifically un-secure and I hate so much about the whole thing from a safety standpoint.
I will likely kill my main account and delete all my personal data and messages, for whatever good that will do, and just make a dummy account to received messages and say hi to family. Same as I did with facebook and other social media.