Discord does about-face on parental controls for teen social media use

Enter discord Parental Controlsa move that marks an ongoing shift by the growing social media company to engage parents on its platform amid increased scrutiny of teens’ use of social media and its potential negative health consequences.

New settings in Discord’s Family Center allow parents to see which Discord communities their teen is in, as well as which users their teen is befriending and interacting with. However, the settings will not allow parents to access the actual content of their teen’s interactions.

More recently, in 2021, top Discord executives told the Wall Street Journal that the company User first philosophy He came before the wishes of the parents. But parents and government officials continue to pressure social media platforms on issues related to teen use. A Surgeon General’s report from May this year indicated that 46% of teens ages 13-17 say that social media makes them feel bad about their body image, and that there is a relationship between social media use and depression. Furthermore, 64% of teens are “often” or “sometimes” exposed to hate-based content, including racism and cyberbullying.

The Discord blog post about the new parental controls tried to balance the user-first philosophy with the fact that many social media users are teens – Surgeon General reports that up to 95% of 13-17 year olds use social media . Discord writes: “The Family Center is a new opt-in tool that makes it easier for teens to keep their parents and guardians informed of their activity on Discord while respecting their independence.”

Family Center requires both user and parent consent. In order to set it up, the parent has to scan the QR code that the teen generates. Once Family Center is set up and the teen accepts a parent’s request, Family Center provides details about Discord activity over the past seven days, including how many users have been messaged or contacted, how many new friends have been added, and how many servers the user is actively participating in. in. Discord described it as a highlight of activity rather than a full archive.

Snap, Instagram, and TikTok all have parental controls

Parental controls like these are becoming more and more popular across social media. Last year, Snapchat Parental control launched that also sought to strike a balance between providing parents with more information while not infringing on their children’s online lives.

“Family Center is designed to mirror the way parents interact with their teens in the real world, where parents typically know who their teens are friends with and when they are out hiking — but not eavesdrop on their private conversations,” pop He said when this feature was announced in August 2022.

meta Last month it said it was rolling out new tools to get users to verify they are 18 years old on Instagram, a move that came after 2022 Introducing the Family Center. A 2021 Wall Street Journal investigation linked teen use of Instagram to negative mental health outcomes. Later that year, Meta paused work on Instagram for kids. Since 2020, TikTok’s family pairing feature has allowed parents to adjust what content their kids can watch and even disable the search bar.

Launched in 2015 and ranked 18th in the 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50, Discord was originally created by those in the gaming community, but has grown far beyond its roots to over 150 million monthly active users. As it has grown, the focus has become more on safety and security issues. Reports of harassment on Discord have become a huge problem in recent years, and it’s a particularly sensitive issue given the younger demographic in general. in that Latest transparency report As of December 2022, the company said it had disabled 42,458 accounts and removed 14,451 servers for child safety violations during the third quarter of 2022, which is a 92% decrease in the number of disabled accounts compared to the previous quarter.

The Surgeon General said in his report earlier this year that there is evidence on both sides of the social media debate. It can lead to or exacerbate eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression, according to research reviewed by the Surgeon General. However, the report also stated that the majority of teens say social media helps them feel more accepted (58%), like they have people who can support them through difficult times (67%), like they have a place to show their creative side. (71%) and more connected to what’s going on in their friends’ lives (80%). But it concluded that “at this time, we do not have sufficient evidence to determine whether social media is safe enough for children and adolescents.”

Before parental controls, Discord had added features in recent years that it said helped teens manage their accounts for safety reasons, and that they Encourage parents to review these options with their teensincluding direct message filters, candid photo filters, and friend request settings.

Discord’s recent acquisition of Gas indicates its growing response to criticism of teen use of social media. Gas is an app whose main goal is to give teens a platform to complement each other. Discord stated at blog post about the deal.