Underage Users and Discord: Why Younger people should be allowed to use the service.

Before we get into this article, Picture This:

You, and your other friend, are making a Discord Server for your 7-8th grade team. Some of it is under 13, some of it isn't.

You continue to make this Discord Server for 8 hours, hoping you'll get your teachers and fellow friends in on it.

And while looking for the best and swaggiest way to represent your server to your friends, you find out that you can't use Discord if you are under the age of 13.

Not because of COPPA, because they allow Parental Permission to let kids use services. Not because of a lawsuit. Just because.

And that's the situation I'm in right now. Thanks, Discord.

The fact that Discord, even for school purposes, doesn't allow 12-year-olds to use Discord with permission, is outrageous.

I've looked into it on many sources, and COPPA Law essentially states that people under 13 can use services that are meant for people above 13 years with Parental Permission.

As of now, Discord doesn't have a way to allow users to get Parental Permission, thus making it impossible for underage users to use the service without deceiving the system.

Deceiving the system means they have to blend in. Their voice may be higher, so they may not be included. They may see inappropriate content and instead of reporting it, they must blend in to hide their age. And that's even if they want to.

In my case, if we want to deceive the system, we would have to first get the teachers on board, and then EVERY SINGLE STUDENT.

Not allowing so in these times will reduce social interaction. I can tell you with certainty that no one wants to use Zoom over Discord.

So, why doesn't Discord flip the switch? Why don't they allow underage users to use Discord? It would bring them traffic. They would evade COPPA by giving a Parental Permission option.

Until then, we shall never know. 

And that is why underage users (with purpose) should be allowed to use Discord.

Please attempt to get this shown to Discord, and with that, I bid you farewell.