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by BenSS 2341 days ago
Discord is one crisis away from imploding if they don't get serious about moderation tools and parental controls. They're turning a blind eye to the issues around tweens/teens interacting with much older folks online in pursuit of growth.
2 comments

Ugh. Why would Discord, a tool for making private communities be on the hook for moderation and parental controls? Let's stop it with this tired "but think of the children" argument. It's not Discord's job to parent people's kids.
I'm pretty sure the parent is talking about the court of public opinion. Every few weeks like clockwork now the New York Times or the Verge runs some breathless story about how IG/YouTube/Messenger/whatever is harboring pedophiles; it's easy to see how Discord could be next. The difference is, those other companies are big enough to manage the PR hit and fallout; I'm not sure Discord is the same.
Discord is also not big enough of a target to garner the ire of those publications nor do its users care about the court of public opinion.
If you run a service that predators use in service of their goals, and you're in a position to do something about it, then I think you're obligated to do so, especially if no one else is in a similar position to do something about it.

I've had a personal experience recently where I had to report a situation involving older people and a minor to Discord. (Discord banned the minor, which I guess is one way of dealing with the situation, but it leaves something to be desired.)

Not every call for "think of the children" is a baseless call made by a strawman that just loves censorship or something. "Think of the children" is a silly phrase when it's about rock music. It's not silly when it's about a dark creepy alleyway that people keep complaining about running into pedophiles in.

I love using Discord, but I hope they focus enough on keeping it safe and take their position seriously.

> (Discord banned the minor, which I guess is one way of dealing with the situation, but it leaves something to be desired.)

Legally required to if they're under 13.

Their permissions system and moderation tools imo outclass anyone else out there. I haven't seen parental controls but I'm curious what moderation deficiencies you're referring to.
I think the parent comment is more concerned about the prospect of young Discord users being allowed to communicate with a very large and diverse set of users/servers, which includes a lot of adult/fringe/pornographic/political content, easily allowing them to receive direct messages from others in these communities.