Discord announced on Tuesday that they are introducing a new Family Center opt-in-tool to make it easy for parents and guardians to learn more about who their teens are friends with and talk to on the platform. Discord add parental controls and this official rollout of the parental controls follows two months after Discord first tested the Family Center feature.
After that, parents can access the dashboard anytime to view their teen’s activity. In addition, parents will receive a weekly email containing a summary of their teen’s activity. While parents can view which Discord communities and users their teens are talking to, conversations will remain private to protect their teen’s privacy.
Parents must request their teen’s consent to access their activity in Family Center. To do so, teens must generate a QR code in Family Center which the parent can then scan. When the setup process is complete, teens will be notified that their parent is now connected.
Discord announced in a blog post, “Once your teen has accepted your connection request, Family Center will display their activity on Discord from the last seven days.”
With Family Center, parents can track their teen’s activity, including how many people they’ve messaged or called, how many new friends they’ve added, and how many servers they’re on.
However, Family Center will only show activity after your teen has accepted your connection request, so you won’t get a full record of their activity.
Parents can use Snapchat to gain insight into who their teen is talking to and friending, but not what they type or the media they share.
See Also: Updates on the Meta Threads app
Despite its popularity among young people, Discord has largely avoided scrutiny of the potential harms posed by social media use. Executives from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap, YouTube, and TikTok have had to testify before Congress on this topic, while Discord has gone relatively unnoticed.
Child safety experts, law enforcement, and the media have warned about the potential dangers Discord app poses to minors, as reports have surfaced of groomers and sexual predators using the service to target children.
In contrast to its earlier position, Discord is now taking a stance in favor of parental controls. The company recently informed The Wall Street Journal that it is prioritizing users and their parents, and plans to introduce a feature in support of parental controls.
Discord is testing new parental controls designed specifically for teens to provide more oversight.
