ARDiscord, the popular online messaging platform, has introduced a new Family Center giving parents more awareness of their teen’s account activity. This centre consists of a new activity dashboard that helps parents understand their teen's usage within certain areas of the app, as well as a weekly email summary of their activity.
These new features have been introduced to support parents in staying informed about their teen's Discord activity whilst prioritising consent between both parties.
How to Use Family Center
To begin using the Family Center, both the parent and the teen must complete the setup process through the official Discord app. It is worth noting that the teen’s account activity is not shared in the Family Center without their explicit consent. This can encourage healthy discussion around why utilising this feature can be a positive step for navigating and understanding these online spaces together.
Once both teen and parent have consented, parents can request a unique QR code generated within the Family Center, from their teen. These QR codes are time-limited and exclusive, meaning that if another parent wishes to connect their account with the teen's, they will need to repeat the setup steps. Discord will also notify parents every time a new parent connects to their teen’s account within the Family Center.
Once the parent and teen have successfully connected through the Family Center, a comprehensive activity dashboard becomes accessible within the app. This dashboard provides parents with detailed information about their teen's Discord account, specifically focusing on the last seven days of activity. Parents can view information such as:
The names of users their teen has messaged or called in direct or group chats
The names of new friends they've added
The servers in which they actively participate
It is important to note that the Family Center does not provide a complete archive of activity and only highlights events occurring after the teen has accepted the parent's connection request. The Activity dashboard does not share content within messages or calls.
Weekly Email Summary
In addition to the in-app activity dashboard, parents receive a weekly recap of their teen's Discord activity via email. This summary serves as a convenient tool for parents who may not be actively using the Discord app, but who want to stay informed about their teen's online experiences.
It is important to remember that while the Family Center offers insights into a teen's Discord activity, it does not provide access to the contents of conversations. Parents can see who their teen is talking to and the Discord communities they engage with, but the actual conversations remain private. This process has been introduced to encourage more direct conversations about staying safe online whilst maintaining a level of privacy and trust between family members.
Additional Guidance
For additional guidance on setting up and utilising the Family Center, Discord offers a support article that covers all the necessary steps. Furthermore, Discord has partnered with organisations ConnectSafely and National PTA to provide parents with additional resources in the newly introduced Parents Hub.
These partnerships have helped to inform Discord's approach to online safety, enabling them to improve their platform’s approach to keeping users safe online. Alongside this, Discord has also recently released a Safety Center that contains further resources and information about their approach to online safety. There are also articles that delve into their processes surrounding teen and child safety, as well as their policies. If you are looking for an introduction to Discord, you can read our article about some of their primary safety features and setup processes.
