Discord is testing parental controls that allow you to monitor friends and servers

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new usernames These aren’t the only changes coming to the popular Discord chat app, now used by 150 million people every month. The company is also testing a suite of parental controls that would allow for more supervision of younger Discord users, TechCrunch has found and Discord has confirmed. In a live test run on Discord’s iOS app in the US, the company introduced a new “Family Center” feature, where parents will be able to set up tools that allow them to see friends’ names and avatars. recently added servers of your teen, the servers the teen has joined or participated in, and the names and avatars of users they’ve messaged directly or engaged in group chats with.

However, Discord clarifies in an informative screen that parents will not be able to see the content of their adolescent children’s messages or calls to respect their privacy.

This approach, which draws a fine line between the need for parental supervision and a minor’s right to privacy, is similar to how Snapchat implemented parental controls in your application last year. Like Discord’s system, Snapchat only lets parents know who their teen is talking to and befriending, not what they’ve written or what media they’ve shared.

Users who are part of the Discord trial will see the new Family Center hub linked in the User Settings section of the app, under the Privacy & Security and Profiles sections. From here, parents can read an overview of Family Center features and click a “Get Started” button when they’re ready to set things up.

Image Credits: Discord screenshot via Watchful.ai

Discord explains in this screen that he “built Family Center to bring you more content about how your teen uses Discord so you can work together on building positive behaviors online.” He then details the various parental controls, which will allow them to see who your teen is chatting with and befriending, and which servers they’re joining and participating in.

Like TikTok, parents can scan a QR code provided by the teen to put the account under their supervision.

Image Credits: Discord screenshot via Watchful.ai

The screenshots were discovered by the app intelligence firm. Watchman.ai. Additionally, a handful of users had they published theirs screenshots on Twitter when they came across the new experience earlier this year, or just commented in the function when you find it in the app.

We hit up Discord to comment on the tests, showing you some screenshots from the test. The company confirmed the development, but did not offer a firm commitment on when or if the main control feature would actually be implemented.

“We are always working to improve our platform and keep users safe, particularly younger ones,” a Discord spokesperson said. “We will let you know if and when anything comes of this work,” they added.

The company declined to answer our questions about the scope of the tests or whether it planned to offer the tools outside of the US, among other things.

Image Credits: Discord screenshot via Watchful.ai

Although Discord is regularly used by a younger crowd today, Gen Z, thanks to its roots in being a home for gamers, is often left out of the larger conversation about the harm done to teens by the use of social networks. Meanwhile, as executives of Facebook twitter, instagram, Snap, YouTube and TikTok have had to testify before Congress on this issue, Discord has been able to stay out of it.

Hoping to get ahead of expected regulations, most of the major social media companies have implemented parental control features for their apps, if they don’t already offer them. Youtube and instagram announced plans for parental controls in 2021, and Instagram finally thrown out them in 2022 with other Meta apps to follow. Snapchat also rolled out parental controls in 2022. And TikTok, which already had parental controls in place before congressional investigations began, has been reinforcing them in the last months.

But due to a lack of regulation at the federal level, several US states have enacted their own laws on social media use, including new restrictions on social media apps in states like Utah and Mountainas well as broader legislation to protect minors, such as California Age Appropriate Design Code Law what comes in effect next year.

Discord has, until now, flown under the radar, despite warnings from child safety experts, law enforcementand the media about the dangers that the application represents for minors, in the middle of reports that hairdressers and sexual predators has been using the service to target children. The nonprofit organization, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, even added discord to its “Dirty Dozen List” for failing to “adequately address sexually exploitative content and activity on its platform,” it says.

The organization specifically calls out Discord’s lack of significant age verification technology, insufficient moderation, and inadequate security settings.

Today, Discord offers its users access to an online safety center It guides users and parents on how to manage a secure Discord account or server, but doesn’t go as far as providing parents with tools to monitor their children’s use of the service or block them from joining discord. servers or communicate with unknown people. However, the new parental controls won’t address the last two concerns, but they are at least an acknowledgment that some form of parental control is needed.

This is a change from Discord’s previous position on the matter, as the company told The Wall Street Journal in early 2021 his philosophy was to put users first, not their parents, and he said he did not plan to add such a feature.