My nephew wants to join Discord to play with his online friends and my sister asked me what I think. I remember being sketched out about online stuff but I don't really know how Discord works. What should parents know? Are there parental controls? Is it as risky as it feels or am I just being paranoid?
I'd say it's fine as long as you talk to him about online safety first. Honestly picking that battle is better than fighting him on it completely.
It's way safer than it used to be. Just make sure he knows the basics about not chatting with randoms and he should be good.
Discord itself is pretty solid if you set it up right with privacy settings. The real thing is making sure he knows not to share personal stuff and maybe keeping an eye on which servers he joins.
I'd recommend checking out the servers he wants to join before giving the okay. Some gaming communities are solid, others are pretty toxic. Get him on a private server with real friends if possible.
At 13 I think it's okay but with parental oversight. Tell your sister to set it to private mode and have him only join servers you've approved. Also mute notifications so it's not blowing up all day.
Sign in to join the conversation.
Discord itself is fine but it really depends on the communities and who he's playing with. Make sure you know the people he's gaming with first. That's the real concern.