This messaging application has become popular among children and young people to play and talk with their friends at the same time, but its use has its risks
If you see that your child is alone playing in front of the computer while interacting through the microphone of the headphones, it is possible that they are using Discord. This application has become one of the favorites of ‘gamers’ to communicate with each other, through voice, text or video chat, while playing online. However, this messaging service has spread to groups of friends thanks in part to the popularization of games like Among Us.
The success of this ‘Among Us’ is due to ‘streamers’ like Ibai Llanos who also found in Discord a way to make the game more entertaining for viewers. An experience to which they added even users who are not so assiduous to video games. Content creators exploited this chat for live streams on Twitch. The Basque even used it to interact with his followers. Although Discord is not reserved for the ‘gamer’ community, this is where it has found its largest audience since young people and children can be talking to their friends while playing remotely. And this is its greatest attraction.
The minimum age to create an account on Discord is 13 years old, and it is recommended to create and manage it with parental supervision. This is recommended by the National Institute of Cybersecurity of Spain (Incibe), since users can be victims of fraud. Cybercriminals can steal accounts through social engineering, phishing, or personal data theft, either by targeting the Discord account itself or by using it to try to access your accounts on other gaming platforms. And so they can later sell personal data or commit fraud such as charging unauthorized purchases to their accounts.
Tips for using Discord safely
Thus, Incibe recommends making a configuration with our child that allows them to use the application in the safest way possible.
– It is important that criteria and limits of use and connection are established proactively and positively, especially when Discord is combined with video games. In order to achieve a balanced use, we can previously agree on some rules based on a pact.
– Establish access to the account with double authentication factor to protect it from possible intrusion attempts.
– Restrict profile information, hide connection status, as well as disable the ‘show activity’ option, to avoid exposing personal information, including your connection habits. This data can be used for malicious purposes, such as fraud and scam attempts.
– Enable scanning and filtering of direct messages to avoid receiving explicit content.
– The members of the server can be known or unknown, so it is convenient to restrict the reception of direct messages and friend requests by unknown users.
– It is recommended to reject the reception and sending of gifts (subscriptions and personalized improvements) by channels to which the user is not subscribed or are unknown to him, since they can lead to an economic disbursement, the loss of a promotional code or be treated of a strategy to approach the minor and gain his trust.
– In the event that the minor wants to subscribe to ‘Discord Nitro’ or wants to make purchases of personalized content, an online prepaid account can be enabled exclusively for this type of service, in order to prevent the theft of card information and possible improper charges on it. In addition, monthly monitoring to detect strange and unusual movements would be useful.
– Share time and supervise the minor during its use. It may be easier to be aware of their concerns, detect possible risk situations in time, as well as reinforce mutual trust to address any doubts, questions or uncomfortable situations that may arise.
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