Hacker News Reader

Comment by unstatusthequo | Hacker News Reader

Cool. Still waiting for proper / modern / real parental controls. My 13 y/o nephew wants to chat with his buddies but there’s no real way to make sure he’s not getting weirdos contacting him.

View on HN

What would parental controls on Discord look like to you?

The scenario is that you typically join someone else's server or provide them with a link to one you are already a part of.

Would you want some client-side assurances that a young user doesn't interact with someone who says something you dislike, or would you want this on the server-side?

What does the interaction with people who do not have those controls look like?

There is already a setting which prevents people not on your friends list from contacting you, as well as a setting limiting who can request to add you as a friend. What more do you need?

I think it's a case of "I don't want this kid to change these features unless there is direct parental approval". Sure those settings exist, but unless there's some policy way to prevent them from being changed it's pointless.

I think traditional parenting is the control you're after - worked in our house so far. "Weirdos on the internet will send you disturbing images that give you nightmares, try and encourage you to do stupid things that will hurt you, try and get money of you, or damage our computer; I've set it so you can't make friends with them nor receive messages - if you want to add anyone, like school friends, that you know in real life that's fine, ask me first. If you mess with the settings I'll have to uninstall it (block it, whatever)."

If you're worried about weirdos peeping and poking on him, you shouldn't consider Discord in the first place, with its massive data and metadata collections.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com