Discord is an app that allows groups of people to communicate with each other at any time. It has branded itself as being a messaging app built for gamers. If you would like to teach your gamer the brain hacks and marketing ploys built into games, check out our GKIS Screen Safety Essentials Course. This program offers powerful teaching tools through weekly coaching videos designed for parents and the entire family. The Screen Safety Essentials Course encompasses a variety of valuable resources for keeping families informed about the various pitfalls of the digital world in addition to providing tools for fostering open communication and family connectedness.
How long has Discord been around, and how popular is it?
Discord was launched in May of 2015 by Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy. In 2020, Discord earned $130 million, with over 100 million active monthly users. Most of the revenue comes from a service called Nitro, which allows users to pay for upgrades to their servers. About 850 million messages are sent every day on Discord.[1]
Getting Started with Discord
Discord requires users to be over the age of 13 before they are allowed to create an account. This is a simple birthdate check and can be easily faked by children under the age of 13. Discord can be downloaded on the App or Google Play stores on mobile or by going to the Discord website and installing the application on a computer. Discord can also be used on any internet browser.
Before letting your child use any sort of messaging app, we recommend our Connected Family Course to help teach your child about the potential dangers of the internet and how to avoid falling victim to them.
Features of Discord
Basics
When a new user opens Discord, they won’t have a lot of options. To get connected with peers, Discord servers have a link that can be sent out that works as an invite. When an individual clicks that link, Discord will open, and they will be prompted to join the server.
In each server, there can be multiple text and voice channels. These different channels can be used to keep larger servers on topic. For example, creating a specific voice channel for gaming is a common occurrence.
Users often have screen names instead of their actual names displayed. This can make it hard to keep track of who you are talking to, especially if other users change their display names frequently.
Nitro
Discord allows users to ‘boost’ a server with Nitro. This gives various benefits to the server and its members, including higher quality audio chat, exclusive and customizable emojis, and higher quality video sharing.
This costs a user $9.99 a month to boost a server. Servers may be boosted by multiple users for improved benefits.
Private Servers vs Public servers
Private servers require users to be approved by a moderator or be given a password to access the server.
Public servers are joinable by anyone.
Many game companies, such as Sims, Call of Duty, Among Us, and Fortnite have public Discord servers for their fans to join.
Private Chats
Discord allows users to individually message others based on their privacy settings. Explicit content can be filtered out at the user’s discretion.
Messages from complete strangers can be prevented completely by changing one’s privacy settings.
Controversies
During its relatively short lifespan, Discord has found itself at the center of several different controversies. Most recently and famously, it was discovered that several members of the 2021 Washington D.C. occupation used Discord to discuss and organize the Capitol Hill incident. Their server was subsequently deleted.[2]
In addition, numerous Discord servers are solely dedicated to the sharing of various types of pornography. Those servers are often easy to find and join, with little age verification required. So long as the user’s account says they are over 18, they are able to join these servers with no issue.
Benefits of Discord
Discord allows individuals to communicate with their friends easily. Discord does not inherently cost anything, so it is appealing to those with a limited budget. It helps the individual feel connected to their friends and gives them a place to chat how and when they desire. If you like a certain game, joining a public discord to talk with similar-minded people can be exciting and fun. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of servers dedicated to discussing video games, movies, books, or even mythology. Discord provides a broad range of groups.
Discord also offers features to protect privacy. Specifically, it provides settings to prevent instances of bullying, spam, or harassment from strangers. Users just need to know to turn them on.
Risks of Discord
Discord presents some apparent risks. The anonymity of users allows for cyberbullying to be very easy to get away with. Children are often targeted by older members of gaming communities. Users may block other users once they feel threatened, but this does little to prevent cyberbullying from happening. It simply prevents it from happening again.
In addition, the ease of access to pornographic content is a big issue. If a child wanted to look up pornography but didn’t want it to show up on their internet history, Discord can provide it discretely. If you are worried about what websites your child is visiting, consider browsing our article on red-light websites.
GKIS rates Discord as a red-light app. This means that children under the age of 18 are not recommended to use this app. We came to this conclusion based almost solely on the ease of access to explicit content. Perhaps with careful parent supervision, it could be considered a yellow-light app. So long as parents are able to monitor what servers their children are in and who they are talking to, Discord has no more risk than texting or Facebook messaging. GKIS encourages parents to talk to their children and make an informed decision on whether or not Discord is appropriate. For help choosing and programming parental controls and management programs, our Screen Safety Toolkit is a comprehensive research guide with GKIS recommendations and special offers and discounts.
Thanks to CSUCI intern Dakota Byrne for researching Among Us and co-authoring this article.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
I intended for today’s blog to be a quick one until I myself became confused about the differences between texting and instant messaging. Then I started wondering if my iPhone could contract a virus from texting! And the rest is included in today’s GKIS beginners guide to texting and instant messaging.
WHAT IS TEXTING?
Texting = brief, electronic messages sent between individuals or groups of people through portable screen media devices over a phone network. Your text contact handle is your mobile phone number.
Texting typically also allows transmission of images, videos, and sound content, also called MMS messages (multimedia messaging service).
You can text from your computer by installing an short message service (SMS) app.
The first commercial texting was offered in 1994. Today, 91% of adult Americans own a cell phone and 81% of those users text (Pew Research, 2013).
Currently, mobile phone viruses are rare (but on the rise) and occur almost exclusively from phones running the Symbian operating system.
Technically, a mobile phone can be infected by accepting maliciously baited texts, through Bluetooth connections, or from downloading from the Internet or connecting to a computer. Infected files are typically disguised as applications like games, security patches, and pornography.
Currently there are no reported viruses that auto-install, meaning you must agree to install program to be infected. Keep in mind they are disguised to be something you want!
To be safe, it’s best to only download apps from reputable sources. If you are concerned that you downloaded malware, there are antivirus scanning programs on the market.
Apple, Microsoft, and Research in Motion smartphones are less targeted.
Advertisers have figured out how to use bulk texting to attract buyers.
Medical offices now use texting to send reminders.
Texting can also be used to remotely control appliances.
Texting issues of concern include texting while driving or walking, sexting, cyberbullying, distraction, security, misrepresentation, and spamming.
WHAT IS INSTANT MESSAGING?
Instant Messaging (IM) = a service that allows real-time text-based messages (chatting) between an individual or groups of people over the Internet. Simply type and SEND. To send an instant message, you typically need a username and password.
Using “push technology”, advanced IMing allows a user to also transfer files (like images and videos), hyperlinks (links you click on to take you to a website), voice over Internet protocol using microphones (IP) (like Skype and Google Talk), video chat (using microphones and webcams), and web conferencing (video calling and instant messaging).
Instant messaging is different from email because both users are usually “logged on” to the instant messaging service. However, many systems allow users to communicate even when they are not logged on, making them very similar to email.
Developed in the 1980s, instant messaging became popular in the 1990s through America Online (AOL). In 2010 various social media (FaceBook chat, Twitter) started offering IM capability.
Most popular social media have IM capacity (e.g., FaceBook, Instagram, Snapchat, Google+, LinkedIn).
The most popular instant messaging apps are WhatsApp, China’s WeChat, Viber, and Japan’s LINE. Many of these have privacy protection concerns because they don’t offer end-to-end encryption.
Black hat hackers have often used IM networks for phishing and delivering malware like viruses, computer worms, Trojan horses, and spyware.
A typical ploy used by malicious hackers is to send a socially engineered text (from a friend on your contact list) that directs the recipient to a poisonous URL. Once the recipient arrives to at that site, the cycle begins again when the same text is sent to everybody in their contact list to claim more victims.
Corporations typically have log-in and security features installed in their IM systems that allow tracking, archiving, and content scanning.
Media has reported that the National Security Agency (NSA) is tracking and archiving email and instant messaging content using metadata collection methods.
Chat rooms= online sites where users who are typically unknown to each other communicate via multicast (one-to-many) transmission. Often chat rooms offer IMing between users on a “buddy list” so they can instant message privately as well. Instant messaging from chat rooms is either transmitted peer-to-peer or client-server (messages go to a central server which then re-transmits the message to the client).
HOW ARE TEXTING AND IM THE SAME?
Both allow you to type messages to an individual or group of people in real time on handheld screen media devices and your computer
Internet slang or textspeak is commonly used when texting and instant messaging (e.g., LOL, BRB)
HOW ARE TEXTING AND IM DIFFERENT?
Texting is typically done on smartphones using cellular data. You can also text through the computer by downloading an app that allows the use of short message service (SMS) data.
You can text anyone who has service. However, you can only IM people who have that IM service.
You pay your phone provider for texting, whereas most instant messaging services are free. However, you do pay for the data use with instant messaging.
I hope that quick tutorial helps you become the tech expert in your home and furthers your journey to get your kids Internet safe.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetYourKidsInternetSafe.
