Discord roll out global age verification system, including an "age inference" model that runs in the background
I hate Discord with the intensity of a supernova falling into a black hole. I hate its ungainly profusion of tabs and voice channels. I regret its cybersecurity breaches. I resent that the PRs use it for every virtual press event. I’m furious that I have to download 12 updates whenever I remember to turn it on. I despise the feisty and cloying loading screen trivia and service messages. Show me the “empathy banana” again, you weird little gopher beetle. I’ll put you in the microwave.
I also dislike that Discord now assumes I’m “teen-by-default” and restricts my access appropriately unless I go through some kind of age verification process, though I can understand the rationale, given some of the awful things that have happened via Discord. Already in play across the UK and Australia, this new “age-assured” approach is now being rolled out worldwide to create “a safer and more inclusive experience for users over the age of 13”. Rather unnervingly, Discord’s new age verification system includes an “inference model, a new system that runs in the background to help determine whether an account belongs to an adult, without always requiring users to verify their age.”