Discord is Just the Next in Line

The other day, Discord announced it was going to require a face scan or ID in order to continue using it as an adult. This is only another domino in a line of dominos that have already fallen.

Politicians in Washington on both sides of the aisle have been pushing for rules like this forever. Those on the right have been more vocal about it and are pushing for far stricter and more draconian rules on what content children and teenagers should be able to access, but the left has been pushing for more age gates as well.

The fact of the matter is that we're seeing companies cave to political pressure to try to limit what young people can see. And the big issue I have with this is the rules those in power are trying to put in place. There's obviously certain content that kids and teenagers shouldn't be able to access, but who do we want to draw that line? If you talk to the GOP, it'd follow much like their book bans policy. Everything they don't like (aka "woke") would be demanded to be put behind an age gate. A site that provides support to LGBT youth, you know the Republicans would love to make sure that teens struggling with their sexuality never see that.

What about my site? I don't think there's anything particularly objectionable about or on my site. But what if some politician (on either side of the aisle) happens to find something they don't like on my site, and sees that kids can access it in their web browser? It's obviously highly unlikely to happen, but it still could. And what about other sites that are more popular and more visited. Lately, hypotheticals are feeling a lot less hypothetical under this administration. They're being far more censorious and no doubt would love more tools to go after more of their critics and content they don't approve of.

I also think Masnick's Impossibility Theorem applies here. Even if we are hopelessly optimistic and stupidly assume that Washington has our best interests at heart with any rules they lay out, content that shouldn't be age-gated is almost certainly going to get age-gated.

Also, from a security perspective, this just is asking for trouble. Discord is saying the ID is immediately deleted, but can we really trust that? I mean they already had a data breach of this kind of info? I'd hope they would've learned something from that breach, but hackers are always trying to find vulnerabilities and security holes to gain access to areas they shouldn't have access to. It's a cat and mouse game and as the saying goes, defenders have to be perfect all the time, attackers only have to be successful once.

Other countries like the UK have already implemented age gates. Discord just looks looks like it's trying getting ahead of things here in the US before they inevitably come here. If you're in the US, I'd suggest keeping your eyes and ears out for these laws and contact your representatives about them. From a state legislature side of things, half of the US already has laws in place. One can only hope that the inevitability of a law on the federal side of things isn't as inevitable as it seems.

For me, given the security implications about uploading your drivers license or other government-issued ID, I'm going to do as much as I can to stay clear of any service that requires an upload. I've already deleted my Discord account, although I've hardly used it. Any other service I use that starts requiring it can meet the same fate.