Gamer fury as Discord begins age verification checks

Australian gamers are protesting the introduction of age verification on the Discord chat platform.

Gamers have attributed Discord’s rolling introduction of age verification – which requires a government ID or video selfie – to the impending under-16 social media ban. The ban will come into force in December as part of the Federal government’s changes to the Online Safety Act.

Discord provides chat, voice communication, and video streaming, and is widely used in the gaming and crypto communities.

The platform told Mumbrella that it was “running age assurance tests in a few countries, including Australia”.

“[We] will continue to scale these efforts as we invest in features that allow for positive, age-appropriate and privacy-forward experiences on our platform,” it said in a written response.

The move has prompted fury from Australian gamers who have taken to Reddit, alarmed by the potential of data leaks and questioning the motivation of the company.

“Yeah sure, and our data is also safe with these companies. Except when they get hacked. Whoops sorry Optus customers, hope you enjoy changing your driver’s license,” wrote one user.

“As we’ve seen in the past, if they do retain data they shouldn’t and it does get hacked, the consequences are just … nothing. They can just do that,” wrote another.

“I have decided that I would rather end my entire online social life than comply with this shit,” said one user, whose resolution to quit the platform was echoed by other users.

Discord’s age verification can occur one of two ways: by scanning a government-issued ID (like a driver’s license or passport) or through a “video selfie”, which uses AI to verify a user’s age.

Discord told Mumbrella that the selfie video does not leave a users’ device, and that identity documents and images (the ID method requires a still image of the user) are deleted as soon as the user’s age is verified.

One Reddit poster said the AI video selfie scanner requested he open his mouth, and then the process failed anyway.

Other users said the AI-based video selfie verification was easy to fool with video augmentation that substitutes video game characters for the user’s actual video feed.

Discord appears to fall within the definition of an “age-restricted social media platforms” in the Australian legislation. That legislation requires relevant platforms to find reasonable means to block under-16s from accessing services from December 10.

Last week the government released its guidelines for how to enforce the age ban — and left all the heavy-lifting to the platforms themselves.

As well as the under-16 social media ban, Australia is set to restrict access to pornography sites and services to those 18 and over. Those changes to the Online Safety Act — which have received less attention than the social media ban — have been prefigured by the UK’s under-18 pornography ban, which is now in effect.