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Sponsor/Advertiser Voice (0:01)
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Tech News Host (0:28)
What's that boy? The tech news fell down a well. Oh, it's currently still falling down a well. It's like a bottomless well situation. So we can't do anything. You just wanted me to know. Good boy. Discord announced today that it's rolling out global age verification starting next month, taking a teen by default approach, meaning that without verification, the app will default to an experience appropriate for teens, which would include updated communication settings, restricted access to age gated spaces and content filtering, and will not include hanging out in a Blockbuster Video parking lot firing Roman candles into my friend Kyle's Honda Civic. Like I initially assumed, in order to validate their age, users will need to either complete a facial age estimation video via selfie or submit a photo of their government ID to one of Discord's third party vendor partners. As an added bonus, this also protects adults from being bullied by teens in Age G servers, where they come together to innocently discuss their mutual love of the Minions extended cinematic universe. Discord initially tested the system in the UK and Australia last year, but now it's being rolled out globally. Critics are quick to point to the October 2025 data breach, in which one of Discord's third party vendors was compromised and approximately 70,000 users had their age verification data exposed, including images of their government IDs. But it's important to note that that leak was the product of a legacy age verification system that was introduced in 2020. Some of you weren't even born yet, and Discord has terminated its contract with that vendor, according to Savannah Battle, it's Discord's global head of product policy. The new system uses similar face scan and ID based verification, but with a few key differences. Facial age estimation is now done entirely on device. Any ID documents submitted to vendors are in most cases deleted immediately after age confirmation, and Battle Itch says that if the age estimation from the CEL is incorrect, users can appeal it or verify with a photo of a government ID instead. Discord is also rolling out an age inference model that runs in the background and analyzes metadata like the types of games a user plays their activity on Discord and behavioral signals to estimate age. So if Discord notices that you're listening to S Club 7 and pausing your game every 30 minutes or so to go pee, it will assume correctly you're 45 years old and probably also hopefully send a message to your urologist or remind you about what the actual daily recommended intake is. For Mountain Dew, it's zero.
