He says all his friends use it to talk while playing games together. I looked at it briefly and it seems like just a chat app but I'm not sure about the safety side. Can I see what he's talking about? Are there parental controls? I want him to have a social life but I'm also not trying to be completely blind to what he's doing online.
Discord itself isn't inherently bad, but you need to dig into it. The moderation depends heavily on which servers he's joining. Gaming servers are usually fine, but make sure you can see what communities he's actually in.
All his friends using it is the thing, but it's also worth knowing which servers. Gaming servers with friends are one thing, public servers are something else entirely.
I let my oldest use Discord for gaming with friends. The key is setting ground rules about who he can talk to and keeping an eye on his contacts list. Have a real conversation about online safety before he joins.
I let my 13 year old on Discord with strict rules. Private mode only, only people he knows in real life, and I spot check it maybe once a week. He's been fine with it.
Honestly it's safer than a lot of alternatives IMO. The fact that you can moderate servers and control who gets access is actually pretty good. Just have a conversation with him about it first.
Discord itself is fine it's the people on it that worry me. I set it up so my kid can only add people he personally knows. That felt like a good middle ground.
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Everyone his age is using it, so the ban isn't really realistic. Better to allow it with supervision than have him sneaking around. Just need to stay involved in what he's doing.