SweetieGames

(Header Image by Ashiq Raazz from Pixabay)

Discord is huge with the gaming community; it’s been the staple for multiplayer games and fan group chats for years. My account has been active since 2018 and I’m in a huge range of servers related to my various interests, from otome games to musicians to streamers. The combo of voice chat channels and written messages all in one place, and the ability to enter different channels so you can see content specifically that you’re interested in is really useful and I haven’t seen it replicated elsewhere.

This week, Discord’s latest announcement has not gone down well with users; it will be requiring everyone to submit photos of their face or ID to be able to access all of its features, or accounts will be locked on to a “teen” mode. We’ve already seen this in the UK and Australia, but it looks like next month everyone will be subjected to it.

Internet safety seems to be the latest buzz amongst governments and developers. Everything is done in order to protect young people from stumbling across inappropriate content. I understand this is very important; many young people have had their lives ruined by being exposed to harmful or inappropriate content online from a young age. However, I do feel that the downfall of child specific online spaces, such as flash games, virtual worlds and more has led to children and young people entering online spaces that aren’t meant for them. It’s not just a developer’s responsibility to protect young people online, it’s also the responsibility of the adults in their life. Parents shouldn’t be letting their children access the internet completely unrestricted and unsupervised in today’s landscape. There should be spaces for adults online, just as there should be spaces for children and young people.

Discord’s latest policy introduces huge risks for its users; fairly recently, a data breach saw thousands of people’s ID data that they had provided to Discord leaked, leaving users extremely vulnerable. ID and facial data is very sensitive and can be used for horrendous purposes, and many users don’t feel safe revealing this data to the company. Despite Discord reassuring users that the information will not be stored, many users are not convinced that the data won’t be used for surveillance or sold to third parties.

Everyone feels stuck between a rock and a hard place; Discord is the home of millions of gaming communities, friend groups and more. There’s no real alternative for Discord that is as widely used. The introduced “Teen” settings, which I have had as a UK user for months now, are awkward and frustrating, and they don’t really seem like they would do much to protect young people online except to keep them out of NSFW channels. Even then someone could squeeze past the security if they’re determined enough by using realistic looking in-game models or photographs of someone else. I don’t feel comfortable providing my real life ID to a corporation like this, and I can only hope they reconsider their safeguarding ideas or that we don’t see this become wider spread across other internet platforms. There has to be a safer way for everyone.