Discord Introduces Family Center: New Parental Controls for Teen Safety

Discord Introduces Family Center to Enhance Parental Control

Discord is introducing a new Family Center opt-in tool designed to make it easy for parents and guardians to learn more about who their teens are friends with and talk to on the platform, the company announced on Tuesday. The official rollout of the parental controls comes two months after Discord was seen testing the Family Center feature.

Family Center has two major components: an activity dashboard accessible from Discord at any time and a weekly email summary containing information about your teen’s activity. Although parents will be able to see which Discord communities and users their teens are talking to, they won’t be able to see the contents of the conversations themselves in order to protect their privacy. 

To get started with Family Center, Discord requires both the parent and the teen to complete setup through the app. Discord notes that teen account activity is not shared in Family Center without their consent. Parents will have to ask their teens for a QR code easily generated in Family Center. Once the setup process is complete, the teen will be notified when a parent is connected. 

“Once your teen has accepted your connection request, the Family Center will populate with details about their activity on Discord within the last seven days,” the company wrote in a blog post. “This includes the number of users they’ve messaged or called, the number of new friends they’ve added, and how many servers they’re actively participating in. Family Center won’t contain a complete archive of activity and will only highlight activity occurring after your teen has accepted your connection request.”

Discord’s new parental controls are similar to Snapchat’s parental controls, which it introduced in its app last year. Like Discord’s system, Snapchat only allows parents insights into who their teen is talking to and friending, not what they’ve typed or the media they’ve shared.

Although Discord is regularly used by a young audience, the platform is often left out of the larger conversation around the harms to teens caused by social media use. As execs from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap, YouTube and TikTok have had to testify before Congress on this topic, Discord has been able to sit on the sidelines.

Discord has flown under the radar, despite the warnings from child safety experts, law enforcement and the media about the dangers the app poses to minors, amid reports that groomers and sexual predators have been using the service to target children.

Today’s announcement shows a shift in Discord’s position around parental controls. The company told The Wall Street Journal in early 2021 it believed in putting users first, not their parents, and said it wasn’t planning on adding such a feature.

of Discord’s Family Center

Discord has recently announced the introduction of its new Family Center tool that aims to provide parents and guardians with enhanced control over their teens’ activities on the platform. The official rollout comes after a two-month testing period for the Family Center feature.

The Family Center comprises two significant components: an activity dashboard, accessible at any time on Discord, and a weekly email summary containing information about the teen’s activities. While parents can view the Discord communities and users their teens are interacting with, the actual conversation contents are not accessible to maintain privacy.

In order to begin using the Family Center, both the parent and the teen must complete the setup process through the app. Discord emphasizes that a teen’s account activity is not shared within the Family Center without their consent. Teens need to generate a QR code within the Family Center, which parents then use to connect to their account. The teen will receive a notification once the setup is complete and the parent is connected.

According to Discord’s blog post, once the teen accepts the parent’s connection request, the Family Center will populate with details of the teen’s activity within the last seven days. This includes the number of users they have messaged or called, the number of new friends they have added, and how many servers they are actively participating in. It’s important to note that the Family Center does not provide a complete archive of activity but rather highlights activity occurring after the teen accepts the parent’s connection request.

Encouraging through Parental Controls

Similar to Snapchat’s parental controls, Discord’s new parental control features give parents insights into their teens’ interactions and friendships on the platform. However, the actual content of conversations and shared media remain inaccessible to parents. This balance ensures both privacy for the teens and peace of mind for parents who want to ensure their children’s safety.

Considering the younger audience frequently using Discord, it is interesting to note that the platform has often been left out of conversations concerning the potential risks posed to teens by social media. While Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap, YouTube, and TikTok executives have testified before Congress on this issue, Discord has managed to stay on the sidelines. However, child safety experts, law enforcement, and the media have warned about the dangers that the app can pose to minors, including reports of groomers and sexual predators using Discord to target children.

This announcement by Discord marks a notable shift in the company’s position on parental controls. Earlier this year, Discord had stated that it prioritized users over their parents and had no plans to introduce such features, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The introduction of the Family Center demonstrates a change in approach, as Discord now acknowledges the importance of allowing parents to have more visibility and control over their teens’ activities on the platform.

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