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from the I've-got-a-Bad-Thieling-About-This dept.
Ten days ago, the social chat app Discord announced that it would launch “teen-by-default” settings for its global audience. As part of this update, all new and existing users worldwide will have a teen-appropriate experience, with updated communication settings, restricted access to age-gated spaces, and content filtering that preserves privacy and meaningful connections, the platform said.
This, of course, means that to use Discord the way you are used to, you’ll have to let it scan your face, and the internet wasn’t happy. Many communities quickly announced their move to other platforms. Others, like the security researcher Celeste, who goes by the handle vmfunc, were convinced there would be a workaround.
Together with two other researchers, they set out to look into Persona, the San Francisco-based startup that’s used by Discord for biometric identity verification – and found a Persona frontend exposed to the open internet on a US government authorized server.
More at The Rage
(Score: 2) by DadaDoofy on Sunday February 22 2026, @02:36PM
The problem with "wacky conspiracies" is, they keep coming true. Are you suggesting the researchers, Peter Thiel, Persona Identity, OpenAI, Roblox, Heritage Bank, and Lime are all in on the conspiracy? Are you suggesting the Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) products the researchers found the source code for on a government server aren't real?
As far as the problem "age verification" claims to solve, there is no denying social media can be harmful, and not just to children. However, in a free county, it is the responsibility of parents to raise their children. Centralized one-size-fits-all solutions implemented by an authoritarian government fail to take into account children mature and, if parents are doing it right, become responsible at different ages. There is not some magical switch that flips on a kid's 16th birthday. And no, it's not the message, but the results that count.