// KOTAKU — GAMING
Discord’s Second Attempt To Roll Out Age Verification Is Going Badly
Discord has started rolling out its new, controversial age verification system for all users, but this time the company is offering more ways to prove your age in the hope of avoiding the massive amount of backlash it received last time it tried to do this in February. It also addressed various bugs with the age verification system via a sarcastic tweet, which didn’t go over well.
Last week, online chat and communication service Discord activated age verification for all users. Discord estimates a user’s age based on several factors, including how old the account is, what communities and servers they are a part of, and what games are connected to the account. The chat company says it doesn’t look at messages or calls as part of its age estimation system. It also says that 90 percent of Discord users won’t have to bother with age verification thanks to its age estimation system.
For adult users who aren’t sorted into the right age group, Discord is offering multiple ways beyond uploading a photo ID or scanning your face to prove your age, including credit card checks and connecting a Google Wallet, among other options. You can see which age group Discord has sorted you into here.
For 18+ Discord users, nothing really changes, and they can continue using the chat service as they did before. However, for teen users, there will be new restrictions. Messages from non-friends will be directed to a separate inbox for review, users will receive extra warnings when getting a friend request from someone who doesn’t share mutual friends or servers with them, and age-restricted channels and bot commands will not be accessible. Teen profiles on Discord will only be visible to friends and people in smaller servers that they’re part of.
As you would likely expect, this age verification rollout hasn’t been perfect. Discord has confirmed some users are being sorted into the wrong age group or weren’t being sorted at all, which also limited their access to Discord features. Other issues include people being verified as an adult on one platform, but their age status being unconfirmed on another platform, like mobile. For some people, it was a real mess they suddenly had to deal with after likely using Discord for years with no issue.
On September 23, in response to these issues and bugs, Discord posted a sarcastic message and meme on the service’s official Twitter account:
when you launch an extremely popular age assurance update that everyone on Discord was really looking forward to and it has bugs https://t.co/I9dVu9ZhET pic.twitter.com/BLAz9fWTSn
“When you launch an extremely popular age assurance update that everyone on Discord was really looking forward to and it has bugs,” posted Discord. This didn’t go over well at all with fed-up users who were struggling with bugs and other age verification issues. Many people online felt like Discord was acting “childish” or not taking the situation seriously, and threatened to close their accounts in response. Others just created images featuring Discord’s mascot character being tortured or beaten up.
“I am legit probably going to close my servers and delete my account after all this,” replied popular Fallout content creator TKs-Mantis. “The fact that you all seem to try to make childish jokes about every little thing doesn’t help either. I know that if I am thinking this way, many more are too. Absolutely tone deaf company.”
“So you steal our data and now make fun of us? Fuck you,” replied another Discord user.