Beginning Wednesday, Discord, the messaging platform for communities, will implement age verification protocols for all users.

This initiative follows the company’s prior postponement of age verification plans in February due to backlash from users worried that biometric scanning and ID verification could threaten their privacy. Those concerns were valid; last year, a third-party vendor collaborating with Discord experienced a breach, potentially compromising the data of 70,000 users, including government ID images and selfies used for identity verification.

“Age assurance invites strong opinions and skepticism, particularly when it involves disclosing biometric data or a type of ID,” stated Discord CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy in a blog post published on Tuesday. “Simultaneously, age assurance regulations are evolving, and since my previous post, we’ve had to initiate age assurance in additional regions, including Brazil and Texas.”

Nonetheless, Vishnevskiy mentions that over 90% of Discord users will not need to undergo age verification. He clarifies that Discord will utilize existing account information to identify “signals,” such as account longevity (the duration an account has been active), device metadata, activity data, and other usage indicators, to categorize users into adult, teen, or unverified age brackets.

Discord asserts that it does not deduce users’ ages based on message content, profile information, or demographic characteristics.

“The manner in which a typical 15-year-old interacts on Discord (including the number of communities they join and the way they engage with others) differs substantially from that of a typical 30-year-old,” the company outlined in a separate technical blog post published on Tuesday. “Our [machine learning] model has recognized these patterns to assess if a particular account likely pertains to an adult or a teen.”

This does not indicate that Discord is acquiring any new user data. It is commonplace for social media entities to retain this kind of information about their users, although it may feel discomforting to see it expressed so explicitly.

Due to local laws necessitating Discord to employ age assurance technology in specific areas, the company could educate its model on accurately verified data linking user actions to age.

If Discord lacks confidence in a user’s adult status, that user can still verify their age without undergoing biometric or ID scanning. They can appeal by providing credit card details or age-related information from their Apple App Store or Google Play Store accounts.

For confirmed adults, the platform will remain unaffected. However, teen accounts will automatically be restricted from entering age-limited servers or channels. Message requests from individuals who aren’t their friends will redirect to a distinct message requests inbox, and teens will receive notifications upon accepting friend requests from someone they don’t mutually share friends with.

As governments globally persist in enacting age verification mandates to safeguard children online, experts caution that these age checks could introduce various new privacy and security challenges. This predicament presents platforms like Discord with a tough decision: comply or face penalties.