What do parents need to know about discord? Is your child using discord? This is all What parents need to know about discord.
What do parents need to know about discord?
Teenagers and young adults are actually the main drivers of Discord’s explosive growth to date. They use the platform to communicate while playing games, working on assignments together, holding group meetings, singing karaoke, or simply hanging out.
The appeal of Discord to teenagers and young adults can be summed up by Tyler Jones, who started using it at the age of 15. “It’s fast, it’s reliable, it’s easy to use, and it offers so many features, like video calling, screen sharing, presenting, and customizations, that other sites don’t have for free,” he says.
More than anything, Discord makes it easier for people to socialize with their peers, particularly when it would also be really difficult to do so in person otherwise.
In a period like this, Jones said, “I have also seen a large amount of young people my age struggle socially and have found Discord to be a comforting spot to make friends and stay up with them.”
The information that actually follows will help you learn the fundamentals of Discord, including how to keep your children secure while using the platform, if you’re curious about it.
Describe Discord.
Users can write, speak, video chat, and share screens on the free communication app Discord. Due to its simplicity of use and broad range of practical uses, it has since gained popularity outside of the gaming community. It is now used to hold reading clubs, knitting circles, sewing circles, and a variety of other social and professional meetings. What parents need to know about discord?
Compared to those other social media platforms, how does Discord differ?
Discord’s lack of advertisements is one of its key differentiators. Although it does offer a subscription that gives users access to different Discord experience enhancements, Discord also claims that it does not sell user data or share its data with third parties for commercial reasons. There is also no news stream, in contrast to many other social media sites.
More than anything, Discord makes it easier for people to socialise with their peers, particularly when it would also be really difficult to do so in person otherwise.
Additionally, users can interact with both public and private areas. Since the public servers (communities built around a particular subject or group) are open to all users, as suggested by their name, anything your children write there will be visible to anyone who enters the area. Private servers, which can only be accessed by authorised users, give your children the option of setting up their own servers for individuals they know or connecting to those of their peers. What parents need to know about discord?
Discord becomes a more carefully regulated medium as a result.
Discord’s Word List
For the uninformed, discord can be challenging. Fortunately, there is a glossary as well as a tonne of beginner’s guidelines, such as one from Discord, one from PCWorld, and one created by M.I.T. students on how to use Discord to work on projects with peers.
Some words you might hear include:
- Server: Areas where users can congregate and converse. Communities and friend groups can establish servers, which can either be open to the world (so that anyone can join) or invitation-only. Any user can launch a brand-new website for nothing.
- Text and voice lines are set up on servers so that users can interact with one another. These frequently have a narrower focus and are devoted to particular subjects.
- A direct message is abbreviated as “DM.” These are direct communications between users that can be made via text, audio, or video.
- GDMs, or group direct messages, are referred to as this. Users can invite other users to a secret discussion of up to 10 people, whereas direct communications are only between two people. Users must be invited in order to enter a discussion.
Can Kids Engage in Discord?
According to Discord’s Terms of Service, customers in the US must be 13 years old or higher to use the website. Nevertheless, some users of Discord are younger than 13 years old. A “gate” that requests users to self-report their date of birth when establishing an account is being developed, according to the business. Discord will lock a user out of their account if they are identified as being under 13 years old until they can provide formal identification to prove their age.
Make sure the kids are aware that they should never falsify their age on any site, including Discord.
Can My Daughters Interact With Outsiders on Discord?
It relies on the account settings for your kid. Your children can receive direct communications from other users on the website when they join it. However, you can turn off this function in the account options’ Privacy & Safety page (see more details below). Additionally, you got the option of deciding whether anyone, only other website users, or friends of acquaintances can send your kid a friend invitation.
Make sure the children are aware that they should never misrepresent their age online.
Users are advised by Discord to only accept buddy requests from individuals they know. Users on Discord are not required to use their actual identities, so it might be necessary to take an additional step to verify who is sending invitations. Another choice is to scan communications for explicit material and remove them. When someone behaves inappropriately in front of your children, Discord gives you the option to block them, preventing them from writing them direct messages and hiding their messages on any common platforms. Finally, you can establish a server that only allows invitations from individuals you or your kids directly know.
Does Discord Contain Appropriate Content?
Discord, like any other social media with user-generated and submitted content, may contain material that is not suitable for children. The platform’s community rules demand that servers with adult material include an “age-restricted” designation.
Discord’s community standards have recently been revised to include a prohibition on harmful misinformation as well as the consideration of off-platform conduct in some instances when determining whether a user has broken the rules. This, according to Discord, is a component of continuing efforts to maintain the platform’s user-safety.
Although it’s wonderful when platforms and businesses take measures to protect their users, nothing beats having a discussion with the children about what to do if they come across offensive material. You can do this whether they use Discord or the other social media sites in addition to Discord.
Discord spends resources on monitoring and enforcing compliance with its rules across the platform, as well as offering its user’s instruction materials on how to manage groups. In reality, it publishes a Transparency Report every six months that details the number of users who have been reported for breaking the community standards, the reasons for the complaints (harassment, spam, cybercrime, graphic material, etc.), the steps taken by the trust and safety team, and more.
Discord spends resources on monitoring and enforcing compliance with its rules across the platform, as well as offering its user’s instruction materials on how to manage groups. In reality, every six months, it issues a Transparency Report showing how many users were reported for community standards breaches, why the reports were filed (harassment, spam, hacking, explicit content, etc.), the actions taken by the trust and safety team, and more.
How Can I Assure My Children Are Using Discord Safely?
Discord has privacy and safety options, as was already stated. It’s essential to keep in mind that anyone with access to a password for a Discord account can alter the settings at any moment, including your children. Discord stresses in its safety FAQ that it will not provide user login information to parents who ask to view their children’s profiles. Therefore, you’ll need to ask your children personally for entry. For fast access to and establishing privacy and safety options, refer to the table below.
Illustration of Dircord safety precautions
What Other Steps Can Parents Take to Keep an Eye on Their Children’s Discord Activity?
Parents should encourage a continuous, honest dialogue with each of their children about how they use social media and online gaming platforms, just like they should with all other platforms. It’s a fantastic way to understand how the platform functions and how your kids are using it, as well as identify any potential risks by frequently checking in and ask them to share what they’re doing on Discord in a nonjudgmental manner.
