Discord extends Family Center features to help parents “learn more about how your teen spends their time on Discord”

Discord is adding new tools and features to its Family Center.

The Family Center launched in 2023 and is designed to help parents and guardians “learn more about how your teen spends their time on Discord and allows you to play an active role in their experience on Discord.”

Now Discord has announced it is building upon this “initial intent” to give guardians tools to better understand “how their teens use Discord and further dialogue with teens and guardians about their use.”

With this update, parents and guardians can now enable new settings to control sensitive media – allowing content to be blurred, blocked, or left unfiltered – control if friend requests, server DMs, or message requests are sent to all users, server members, or friends of friends, and make use of a “suite” of data privacy settings.

This includes being able to see purchases made over the past seven days, the total voice minutes spent over the last week, and see a “stacked rank of their most frequently messaged users and servers.”

The update also lets teens notify their guardian when they submit a request, whilst making sure they are fully informed via “full transparency” about what their guardians can see and what settings they have enabled.

Parents and guardians will not, however, see the content of the messages minors send.

“Guardians shouldn’t have to be a Discord expert to support their teen,” the company said. “That’s why starting today, we’re rolling out over the next week new Family Centre features to help guardians stay informed and play a more active role in their teens’ online experiences, while making sure teens continue to have a voice in shaping their digital environment. These updates are built with our teen safety principles, informed by teen research and perspectives.”

Last month, Discord confirmed 70,000 users were affected by a recent data breach affecting a third-party customer service provider, with “a small number” including government IDs.