Is Discord app ok for 13 year old?

[BuntyMcHooves]

My son has asked if he can get the discord app so that he can use it when gaming with his friends. Is it safe? He's just turned 13.

It's basically a chat room. Hundreds of people chatting at once about a certain subject. Users can private message anyone on the server too. So probably not your meaning of safe for a 13 yo.

Mine have had it and I didn’t think it was any worse than WhatsApp. Anywhere they can send and receive photos is bad imo but I don’t know how realistic it is to forbid them to have any apps either.

God no

No!!! Lack of parental settings, lots of contact with strangers, nude pictures and messages, strangers trying to persuade your child to travel 300 miles to meet and lie about where they’re going….
mistakenly believed it was a gaming chat room until DS14 encountered all the above.

Thank you both

No, it’s well known for extremest content, particularly amongst the gaming community. It’s basically where you go if you want to say things that will get you banned on other forums.

Sorry I only saw two replies to start with! Thank you all for your replies.

like anything else, it does depend on what servers you join

seriously no- loads of trouble and speaking from experience

I have heard some troubling things about Discord so I have kept my 13yo off it for now.

Depends what they're doing on it. DH uses it because a group he's part of use it to communicate. He likes it as a platform. But as with anything where people gather on mass online, there will be parts which aren't appropriate. Just like asking if Reddit is appropriate. If you stick to /r/AITA, /r/aww, and /r/causualuk you'll be just fine, but go over to /r/gonewild, /r/watchpeopledie, or /r/theredpill then that's not great for a just turned 13 year old.

I use discord and no it is not ok for a child to use it at all. I run my own group plus belong to some small ones but it’s like the Wild West.

My teenager has a few closed servers with friends and she can speak to them as they game together.
Like all social media platforms, we cautioned that not everyone is what they claim to be and if someone makes her feel uncomfortable to close the programme and come and tell us.

No, it's a nightmare, as others have said we have experienced issues with it.

Extreme content coupled with forums or groups that target and have love bomb style chat to entice users. Stay away.

Found out my 13 yr old DS has seen porn on it, so got rid of it

FFS I use Discord. I have never seen a nude.

It depends if you are joining random groups or like me you just have private chats or groups. If you stipulate private groups that he sets up with only his mates then he is fine. This is about parental supervision.

On mine I have one to one chat options with Dh, Ds1 and Ds2. Then groups, so a family group with all 4 of us in, one for me and my two sons, one for me, Dh and Ds1 and one for me, Dh and Ds2. My sons are 19 and 16.

My sons had ones with their friends in covering different topics, so their best mates all in one together as a general but then severs for specific games they played as some played all games others only some games.

Again, parental supervision because you can delete messages and you cannot see the deletion.

Meant to add that my sons voice chatted over discord on headsets when they played games together. It is how we face time Ds at uni in video chat.

This is like saying they want to be on the internet and someone says no because porn, bullying etc, whereas of course they are on the internet you just limit which parts of the internet they access.

Thank you - it's private chat groups of his friends when they are gaming.