Discord Begins Rolling Out Age Verification–And A Sponsorship With FanDuel
Overview & Key Takeaways
Discord has officially begun rolling out age-verification measures as of today. The company first announced age verification--and, subsequently, limits placed on accounts of those under 18--back in February of this year, but delayed a full implementation until just recently.
According to the official announcement blog post, this delay was done in order to include more age-assurance options, including several that do not rely on controversial biometric or digital ID systems, which have raised privacy concerns--especially after a well-publicized hack exposed tens of thousands of Discord users' personal IDs. Instead, they are using an algorithmic combination of factors to determine user age, including how long your account has existed, the servers you're in, the games you play, and other factors, detailed in a technical blog published alongside the announcement. (However, this model is not available in all territories, such as the UK and Austrialia--both of which have enacted strict social media bans and age verification laws.)
While Discord assures users that "More than 90% of you won’t be asked to confirm your age," the company also acknowledge that their model isn't flawless, and some accounts will need to verify their age to use a non-age-restricted Discord account. If users want to avoid uploading ID or video, they can use services like Apple Pay, Google Play, Google Wallet, or AgeKey, or enter a credit card number.
With any attempt at age verification comes controversy, however, and users of Discord were quick to notice that age verification was rolling out at the exact same time as sponsored ads for sports betting website FanDuel were appearing for American users. Obviously, it's illegal to use FanDuel if you're under 21 (or 18 in some jurisdictions), so it didn't take much for social media users to assume a connection between the two events.
We have reached out to Discord for comment on the sponsorship, as well as other potential age-restricted product or service sponsorships in the future. A Discord spokesperson responded, "We’re taking a deliberate, user-first approach to evolving our ads business to add genuine value that connects naturally with our users' sports, gaming and entertainment interests.”
According to Discord, this sponsorship was a limited test in the United States and that "Discord’s policies still prohibit ads for traditional real-money gaming, including casinos and sportsbooks." It was also noted that "Daily Fantasy Sports ads, and FanDuel brand ads on Discord are intended for adults, and we are using a range of age signals to help ensure they are age appropriate. We use age group signals to exclude teens from seeing inappropriate ads and to make sure they have the right settings."
In the meantime, if you don't want to see sports betting ads on your Discord, go to Settings, then Data and Privacy, and scroll down to Sponsored Content. Then go to Manage Sponsored Content and choose to disable "Real Money Gaming." This will hopefully continue to work in the future for other advertising categories you may want to disable, as well.
Discord has officially begun rolling out age-verification measures as of today. The company first announced age verification–and, subsequently, limits placed on accounts of those under 18–back in February of this year, but delayed a full implementation until just recently.
According to the official announcement blog post, this delay was done in order to include more age-assurance options, including several that do not rely on controversial biometric or digital ID systems, which have raised privacy concerns–especially after a well-publicized hack exposed tens of thousands of Discord users’ personal IDs. Instead, they are using an algorithmic combination of factors to determine user age, including how long your account has existed, the servers you’re in, the games you play, and other factors, detailed in a technical blog published alongside the announcement. (However, this model is not available in all territories, such as the UK and Austrialia–both of which have enacted strict social media bans and age verification laws.)
While Discord assures users that “More than 90% of you won’t be asked to confirm your age,” the company also acknowledge that their model isn’t flawless, and some accounts will need to verify their age to use a non-age-restricted Discord account. If users want to avoid uploading ID or video, they can use services like Apple Pay, Google Play, Google Wallet, or AgeKey, or enter a credit card number.
With any attempt at age verification comes controversy, however, and users of Discord were quick to notice that age verification was rolling out at the exact same time as sponsored ads for sports betting website FanDuel were appearing for American users. Obviously, it’s illegal to use FanDuel if you’re under 21 (or 18 in some jurisdictions), so it didn’t take much for social media users to assume a connection between the two events.
We have reached out to Discord for comment on the sponsorship, as well as other potential age-restricted product or service sponsorships in the future. A Discord spokesperson responded, “We’re taking a deliberate, user-first approach to evolving our ads business to add genuine value that connects naturally with our users’ sports, gaming and entertainment interests.”
According to Discord, this sponsorship was a limited test in the United States and that “Discord’s policies still prohibit ads for traditional real-money gaming, including casinos and sportsbooks.” It was also noted that “Daily Fantasy Sports ads, and FanDuel brand ads on Discord are intended for adults, and we are using a range of age signals to help ensure they are age appropriate. We use age group signals to exclude teens from seeing inappropriate ads and to make sure they have the right settings.”
In the meantime, if you don’t want to see sports betting ads on your Discord, go to Settings, then Data and Privacy, and scroll down to Sponsored Content. Then go to Manage Sponsored Content and choose to disable “Real Money Gaming.” This will hopefully continue to work in the future for other advertising categories you may want to disable, as well.
