Discord is an extremely popular and easy way to communicate with friends and pals. Just like there are many chat services made specifically for businesses, Discord is made for the gaming community.
Using Discord allows gamers to chat over text or call with other fellow gamers. This makes the experience more enjoyable and entertaining.
Discord can be used by downloading its app on your iPhone or Android. You can also use it on a desktop in a browser.
How old should you be to use Discord?
In its terms and conditions on the website, Discord mentions that its users must be at least 13 years old. Common Sense Media, which is the added integration on Discord for live chat, also requires that users must be at least 13 years old. However, there is little effort done to implement age restrictions.
Upon signing up, users are required to mention their age, but Discord has put in place no mechanisms to verify the new users’ age.
What are servers on Discord?
There are many terms that Discord uses for features within its services. One such term is servers.
Servers are dedicated spaces on Discord made by a group of friends, communities, or people with similar interests. Most servers contain a few people and are based on private invites only. However, there are some servers which are public and have a huge number of users in it. On Discord, any user can create a server for free and invite their friends to it.
Is Discord safe?
Pornography and Exploitation:
According to Discord’s transparency report in 2021, millions of accounts were banned due to obscene activity. Pornography, child solicitation, and other crimes of digital nature are easy to spot on the platform. Despite the bans, an infinite number of accounts are still there on the platform and they continue to share objectionable material.
No Moderation:
Tech giants such as Facebook and Google have a dedicated team of content moderators. The job of content moderators is to go through all the content that is being posted on their platforms and remove it if it violates any of the terms and conditions.
Discord has no moderators on its board, which makes it easier for predators and exploiters to achieve their ill means on the platform.
Is Discord Safe for Teens?
Due to the reasons mentioned above, it is safe to assume that without practising extreme caution, teens are not at all safe on Discord. The chat service allows people to join different rooms or chats without any restrictions. In the last few months, multiple cases have been reported by parents around the world where teens have been manipulated into sharing not just intimate photos of themselves, but also their house, family members, their car, or any other minor detail of personal nature. The service has also been accused of giving rise to online stalking and cyberbullying. In a nutshell, teens are giving out their personal information to potential online predators.
Is Discord safe for business?
During the pandemic, there was a massive increase in the number of users of online communication services such as Discord and Zoom. While both the services are equally popular with business users, it is important to note that Discord was developed keeping the needs of gamers in mind.
Discord uses many methods and protocols that are deemed unsafe when it comes to keeping business data safe.
IP Tracking:
When using Discord, the servers will always be tracking your IP address and also your trail of activities that you are doing online. When it comes to businesses, having one’s IP exposed is a serious security lapse.
Malware Risks:
When an unsafe link is sent over platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, the platform marks that link as unsafe and notifies users to avoid clicking on such links. On Discord, there is no mechanism in place that can identify malicious links and notify users. Due to this, sending malware on Discord is a common practice and has resulted in huge losses for businesses around the world.
Are there any privacy settings for Discord?
You can change your privacy settings easily on Discord. This will allow you to keep your metadata and other personal information private at all times. It will also make it easier for users to prevent third parties from harvesting and mining their data and selling it to advertisers.
Are there parental controls for Discord?
Despite the dire need for it, Discord does not offer any form of parental control. The only option for parents is to configure the privacy settings on their child’s discord themselves. It is not a fool-proof method, as the child can later change the settings on their own.
How does Discord chat work?
Users on Discord can communicate with each other via text, voice and videos. Users can choose to communicate over a one-on-one private chat or join a group with multiple participants.
Can we share images or videos on Discord?
Sharing images or videos on Discord is easy. Just tap the photo icon from the bottom tray in the discord app. Select a photo or video from your gallery and tap the send button.
If your video is too big in size, it will give you an error. You can upgrade to Discord Nitro and send videos up to 50MBs. Alternatively, you can upload your videos on any other free cloud service such as Google Drive and share the link on discord chat.
Using a reliable VPN service: How to keep yourself safe while using Discord:
As a family that is concerned about the well-being of their kids online, parents should spend time with their kids and establish an online code of conduct. Moreover, parents should enforce the use of VPNs for all online communication so that the personal data of the entire family can be protected. Parents should be mindful of the following points and continue to re-emphasize their importance to children.
- Discuss how to behave on the internet.
- Talk about your family standards and expectations.
- Teach your teen to be suspicious of unsolicited invites.
- Make a game plan for dealing with bullying or adult content.
- Set a follow-up appointment to check out your teen’s Discord every few weeks.
- Use PureVPN
PureVPN
June 20, 2023
11 months ago
