"Additionally, Discord will implement its age inference model, a new system that runs in the background to help determine whether an account belongs to an adult, without always requiring users to verify their age"[0]
0: https://discord.com/press-releases/discord-launches-teen-by-...
Since they have my email, they could infer my age based on purchase history, credit cards, etc all which is available to buy through the usual ad data brokers
Also - the outcry here isn't from people who think they will no longer be able to use Discord in any way, shape, or form without going through an age verification process. That's a bizarre strawman that doesn't represent the main grievances being aired.
I was 14 once too, that’s how I got into what I do now.
It introduces the threat of being personally unmasked to anyone and everyone is introduced in the event the verification system (or a component thereof containing your personal info) is hacked and data dumped to the public.
It introduces the threat of your data being sold around with the "ground truth" of your identity and photo associated with it.
And even if these threats aren't realized....it happens often enough with related companies that the uncertainty will forever be there.
The threat of public humiliation.
The threat of losing your job.
The threat of losing your social connections.
The threat of personal assault.
All of these come to mind as concrete threats that have played out when someone has been doxed by a malicious person.
And now the risk and consequence of doxing is made so much worse when your government ID is associated with chats that are ostensibly private.
This is obviously ineffective but I must admit it's a bit of a boon for privacy enthusiasts as you can pretty easily fake the webcam using a game engine. Presumably someone will make a purpose built tool.
As well, if you aren't going to subvert it, and are willing to tie your identity to the discord account, it is still better than submitting government IDs.
If they were age-gating children to make a safe space, that would be one thing, but they are instead making an adults only area where sexual content and flirting is allowed. For many people this is a bonus, because now like in a bar, you always know the person you’re taking to is an adult.
The vendor is called k-ID: https://www.k-id.com/
Their website includes a lot of technical details about their system. Including that their granularity they typically return in their API is just "ADULT" or not (per jurisdiction). [1]
They also document all their international compliance standings including their assurances that data really doesn't leave user devices.
At a glance, it seems a much better option than Persona, as k-ID's competition. Though arguably, yes, most of their options are still "AI garbage" under the hood. But that's what countries want right now.
[0] https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/30326565624343...
[1] https://docs.k-id.com/get-started/quickstart-guides/age-veri...
For children - this mandate also still makes the decision on behalf of the parents that a child must submit a scan of their face to a third party. Moving to Persona for age verification involves verification data being sent outside of the user's phone - in direct contradiction to Discord's initial promise of keeping facial scan data solely on the phone. Third parties that we've been given no reason to trust will delete the data without using it for an improper purpose such as creating derivative info from the ID or facial scan itself unrelated to the sole purpose of verifying that an individual is an adult.
While we're at it - is there any legitimate reason why Discord is associating a person's actual or estimated age with their account as opposed to storing a value that states if they are or are not an adult? That sort of granularity seems unrelated to the stated purpose.