Discord, the messaging and online community platform, has begun implementing age-verification measures for all users as of today.
The move comes after the company postponed its age-verification plans in February following concerns from users who feared that biometric scans and identity-document verification could threaten their privacy.
اضافة اعلان
Those concerns were not without basis. Last year, a third-party service provider working with Discord suffered a security breach, potentially exposing the data of around 70,000 users, including images of government-issued identification documents and personal photos used for identity verification.
Discord Chief Technology Officer Stanislav Vishnevskiy said in a blog post published Tuesday that age-verification measures have sparked strong opinions and concerns, particularly when they require users to share biometric information or identity documents.
He said laws requiring age verification are expanding in different regions, noting that Discord has had to introduce such measures in other markets, including Brazil and the US state of Texas.
However, Vishnevskiy said that more than 90% of Discord users will not have to directly prove their age.
Instead, the company will use data already available through users’ accounts to identify indicators that can help determine their age group. These include how long an account has existed, device information, activity, and other usage patterns. Users will then be classified as adults, teenagers, or users whose age has not been confirmed.
Discord says it does not estimate users’ ages based on message content, profile information, or demographic characteristics.
In a separate technical blog post, the company explained that, on average, a 15-year-old uses the platform differently from a 30-year-old, whether in terms of the number of communities they join or how they interact with others.
Discord said its machine-learning model has learned these patterns to predict whether an account most likely belongs to an adult or a teenager.
This does not mean Discord has started collecting new types of user data. Social media companies commonly retain information about how users interact with their platforms, although making thes
Resource: A-Ghad.
