As of now, messaging platform Discord operates under an age “assurance” system that automatically sorts you in either an adult, teen, or unconfirmed age group based on context, like how long you’ve had your account and what servers you’re a part of. It’s the best co-founder and chief technology officer Stanislav Vishnevskiy could do after apologizing in February for the whole thing.
Now, most of what Discord is incorporating in its age assurance policy is what Vishnevskiy outlined in his February confession. As the CTO said then, Discord will restrict teen accounts by doing things like blurring sensitive messages and removing access to Stage channels. If you’ve been wrongly labeled a teen account, you can correct it with true age verification – providing things like a photo of your government-issued ID to one of Discord’s age verification vendors.
This inherently invasive process of age verification – plus, the mystery of what third parties really do with your data – is what initially frightened Discord users and led to Vishnevskiy’s self-effacing letter. But, strategically, Vishnevskiy never committed to ditching age assurance, or to doing a substantial rework. A lot of what Discord has just launched is exactly as described in Vishnevskiy’s last attempt at “transparency.”
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The CEO repeats in a new blog, “More than 90% of you won’t be asked to confirm your age.” He also reiterates that he knows, “Any form of age assurance, and the possibility of sharing something biometric or an ID, is a controversial topic. Rightfully so, because of what it represents and where internet legislation around the world is heading: toward a more gated internet.”
“This is bigger than us,” Vishnevskiy concedes. But he suggests Discord has no choice but to analyze your personal data, since, “Laws requiring age assurance are expanding around the world. Rather than waiting to be told how to do it, we’re launching our own privacy-preserving approach.”
Vishnevskiy knows, “No model is perfect, and ours is going to make mistakes, though we believe our model performs as accurately as other available methods. […] We’ll keep learning and continue working to improve the model over time, even as the misses inevitably make their way into memes and social posts.”
“In February, the only methods we’d planned for to confirm your age were facial age estimation or an ID scan,” the CTO says, but “based on your feedback, we committed to giving you more options that meet our high privacy standards.” So, “depending on factors such as your region or device, you may” also be able to prove your age using credit card information, your age range as recorded by the Apple App Store, and a passkey from the website AgeKey.
Vishnevskiy seems to anticipate what you’re thinking at this point – everything is getting worse, and every single tech vampire wants to drain my data. But you’re going to have to get over it.
“I grew up on the early internet. It’s where I found people who were into the same things I was, even when no one around me shared those interests, and that changed the direction of my life,” says the Discord CTO. But, “The internet has changed since then, and we don’t live in a perfect world, which is why our goal is the same one I wrote about in February.” At least he’s consistent.
