Possible Discord Changes

Before reading this post, please see Discord's announcement here: https://discord.com/press-releases/discord-launches-teen-by-default-settings-globally

Depending on if these changes actually go through, I might end up shutting down the Discord server, though it doesn't see much use anyway but I haven't had any reason to shut it down before possibly now. The reason this may result in me closing down the server is simply because I am not a fan of needing to do facial scans or upload a government ID to access content, especially to a company that has a history of data breaches, most recently reported one being from October 2025 (https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/10/discord-says-hackers-stole-government-ids-of-70000-users/) that stole 70,000 users IDs (I would not be surprised if the number is actually higher and that is just what they were willing/able to confirm).

Obviously this means if the Discord server does end up getting deleted the Discord rewards will be removed from Patreon and SubscriberStar. If the server does end up being shut down I am not sure if I will bother setting up a replacement at this time as it didn't receive much use anyway, but we will see I have seen some people recommend Stoat (previously known as Revolt) as a Discord alternative though I've never used it or could always fallback to everyone's old friend Teamspeak (insert "User entered your channel" sound effect).

Now they claim they will also have an inference model that will result in some users not needing to verify their age, but I would expect to find out that the vast majority users will still be required to verify their age using one of the available methods (facial scan or upload document, with maybe more options down the road).

Discord spends some time on the announcement talking about their approach and how secure and private it is. For example they say for the facial age estimation is all handled on the device, right sure I definitely believe you Discord. They also claim that any documents you submit are deleted quickly, considering the data breach linked above from October, I don't have much faith in that being true even if they are using a different vendor now which is something I have seen some people claim is the case but I don't see any official announcement from Discord on that.

Now some may be asking themselves "Why is Discord doing this?" Obviously they claim its to "protect the children", but realistically its most likely going to be related to two reasons:

1. The IPO they want to do, which some speculate could happen as early as March, strange, that is when this will start rolling out, I'm sure that's just a coincidence. Related to this being getting rid of the less advertiser friendly parts of their user base. So this likely won't end up just impacting the usual adult content suspects, like porn, but will likely end up impacting LGBT+ communities/servers as well.
2. They are likely also looking to preempt age verification laws that some governments have already passed, some of which have already impacted Discord while some have not, and others are likely to follow suit, I would not be shocked if a federal age verification law were to be introduced in the USA in the near future considering that 25 states have already passed such laws while others have similar laws that have been introduced but yet to be passed/signed.

That is all for this rant, hopefully see you all in a few days with some Valentine's Day renders for Captain tier supporters.