Discord adds Family Center, giving parents insight into teen activity

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Discord is launching a new tool to give parents more visibility into how their teens are using the platform. Family Center gives parents a weekly summary of their teen's activity on the platform. However, he will not share the details of their conversations.

"Family Center provides parents with everything they need to help their teen use Discord without invading their privacy. It's like the physical world where you know who your kids are hanging out with and where they're going, but without listening to their conversations or micromanaging their relationships. Tools like Family Center can help parents help their teens develop the habits and critical thinking skills that apply not just to Discord but to all of life," said Larry Magid, CEO of ConnectSafely.

To set up Family Center, both parent and teen must have a Discord account. Teens must consent to sharing their account activity. Setup requires scanning a QR code generated by the teen's account to add extra security and ensure consent.

Once logged in, parents will be able to view high-level account activity for the past seven days. This data includes the number of users they have messaged or called, the number of new friends they have added, and the number of servers they are actively participating in. Full chat logs and a full archive of past activity will not be available.< /p>

Parents can view their teen's activity anytime through the Discord app. Additionally, parents will receive a weekly email with a summary of their teen's activity. With this information, parents have more tools to identify behaviors of concern and discuss online safety with their teen.

The Family Center tool is Discord's first step in its new lineup of family-focused initiatives. While Discord previously tested the new Family Center, the platform was again criticized after an NBC investigation into child exploitation on the platform.

Alongside the Family Center, Discord today also announced its commitment to teen and child safety. The post provides an up-to-date overview of Discord's policies, priorities, and solutions for teen safety. This includes a number of partnerships with online safety organizations such as the Family Online Safety Institute, Technology Coalition, NoFiltr, National PTA, Digital Wellness Lab, ConnectSafely and more. Discord's Safety Center has more details on tools parents can use to help their teens stay safe on the platform.

Discord is the latest social platform to beef up its child safety features. Over the past three years, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram/Meta, and Snapchat have added more parental controls. These changes were anticipated or triggered by the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) and the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (