Asteria Wolf

Tl;dr: The vast majority of adults will never have to interact with our age assurance systems and their experience won't change, because we know Discord and how people use it, so we're designing to respect privacy and deliver a safer experience while minimizing friction for adults. Hey folks – I’ve been on Discord since very early 2016 and actually joined the company in 2017. Safety is one of my areas, so today’s announcement on our blog is something I’ve been pretty involved with. I’ve always cared about Discord's approach to privacy (E2EE for A/V was another of my projects here), so I figured I’d add some more context to today's news. I can say confidently that the vast majority of people will never see age verification. I say this because we launched age assurance in the UK and Australia in 2025, and we have some pretty good data on this now. The idea here is that we can pre-identify most adults based on what we already know (not including your messages!), and that looks to get us pretty far here. No face scans, no IDs, for the vast majority of adults.

And if you are one of the smaller subset of folks that we can't definitively pre-identify, then still, you only have to do it if you're accessing age-restricted servers or channels, or changing certain settings. That's really not most users. (Altho... might be more Redditors, tbh.) Last, I know that there is concern about privacy and data leaks. That's a real concern. The selfie system is built purely client-side, it never leaves your device, and we did that intentionally. That'll work for a bunch of users who aren't pre-identified as adults. But if you do end up in the ID bucket, then yeah, you're right that has some risk. We're doing what we can to minimize this by working with our range of partners (who are different partners than the data leak you read about), and if it's any help, we learned a lot internally from the last issue. But I get if that doesn't necessarily inspire more confidence. Anyway, we’ll be sharing more next month as we get closer to the global roll out about the system, including the technology behind it in March. I honestly wouldn't be happy if we didn't build something good and I am excited about what we’re launching, but please let us know what you think when we share more details. And I really appreciate everybody's feedback here today. We’re definitely reading it!

Discord is already starting to walk things back a little, so people should keep doing what they're doing (cancel Nitro, leave feedback/criticism, direct contact through support tickets/phone/email/etc)

Good morning. Please join me in screaming like a possum.
Aaaaaa it's only Tuesday.

I'm taking a selfie wearing nothing but a large teal velvet scarf I crocheted. I'm seated on a bed with my legs drawn up a little bit and smiling subtly at you.

How have y'all been staying warm and busy in this deep freeze?

I made myself a scarf!

And I have warmth to share. 😉

Sunday Hook 📚 Club!

Still reading The Witching Hour. It's a massive book. I'm starting to remember the parts I did like about it. It's fun reading an entire (fictional) family history through centuries.

Which thing has you hung up?

I'm taking a selfie wearing nothing but a large teal velvet scarf I crocheted. I'm seated on a bed with my legs drawn up a little bit and smiling subtly at you.

How have y'all been staying warm and busy in this deep freeze?

I made myself a scarf!

And I have warmth to share. 😉

(1) Any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motion picture film, video game, computer software game, or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body, that depicts nudity, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sado-masochistic abuse, and that is harmful to minors; or (2) Any book, pamphlet, magazine, printed matter, however reproduced, or sound recording, which contains any matter enumerated in subdivision (a)(1), or that contains explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sadomasochistic abuse, and that is harmful to minors.

TN is considering a new bill that allows parents to sue large platforms that allow "material harmful to minors"— including sculpture, drawings, photos, music or video games— that describe or depict nudity, sex or "excessive violence"

The censorship that started with "porn" is coming for everything.

It’s black history month so tip all the Black SWers, content creators and pornstars EXTRA this month 😤

France Considers Restricting VPNs to Support Under-15 Social Media Ban - Decrypt A French official said the government is looking at ways to stop the use of VPNs to evade an incoming social media ban for kids under 15.

France becomes the latest country to float severe VPN restrictions in order to "fix" a bad age-verification law.

VPN bans and other privacy restrictions aren't incidental to authoritarianism, they're a a critical component in their formation.

New fuck/marry/kill list just dropped

Sunday Hook 📚 Club!

I've finished Queen of the Damned and took a detour to start The Witching Hour.

I forgot how messed up this story was. 😳😳😳

“Private companies have been deputized to decide how we can earn and spend our money," says MacDonald, referring to banks, payment processors, and card networks. "Anyone who is ideologically misaligned with any of these companies faces the risk of losing their livelihood”

The quickest way to my heart? Planning ahead. Nothing hurts more than turning down a request because it came in too last-minute to make work. Let’s set something up properly so I can say YES 🥰

If you want to change the world, you have to start with yourself. As above, so below.

Abuse is the microcosm of fascism/colonialism/capitalism/various bigotries. Turtles all the way down.

From a Scandinavian: Wool is the finest material known to man. Sweat is the enemy, be just a tad cold when doing any work. Mittens are better than gloves. The quickest way of adding heat to the body is to drink it.

Sometimes you send something you found online to a friend because you want to brighten their day, and sometimes you send something you found online to a friend with the precise attitude and bearing of a cat very carefully lining up their paw with the back of another cat's head.

This is also why it is incredibly frustrating when doing advocacy that politicians' and civilians' first question about decrim is, "but what kind of regulations will be in place"😬 Everyone wants our names on a list so we can't cross back

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

-Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

Supportive sex workers who stand in solidarity with one another are the absolute hottest, sexiest, and best sex workers.

Sunday Hook 📚 Club

I'm almost done with Queen of the Damned and looking forward to moving through the rest of the series.

Been slowly making my way through Always Coming Home by Ursula LeGuin too, a gift from a client. 😊

OMG the green dress and gold wedges! 🌟

It is a fantastic game! I already have it on Steam, but I wanted to start collecting the analogs too!

Wingspan board game box on countertop.

Many thanks to the lovely suitor that brought me Wingspan from my wishlist!

(Now I have to go put the expansions on there.) ☺️

Excited to have this for my upcoming friend cabin trip!

Sunday Hook 📚 Club!

I've slowed down a bit, but making my way through Queen of the Damned.

Getting close to the end of The Waste Lands with my girlfriend as well!

Someone asked me for suggestions on how we can work together to leave X behind and bring our clients over to Bluesky. I wrote a few ideas below.
Please feel free to repost, and reshare on any social media platforms:

Sunday Hook 📚 Club

Still working on Queen of the Damned.

Also started Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. It's interesting so far and I'm looking forward to seeing if I can improve my quality of life with it.

What's your first book of the year?

Tolerance for wolves increasing, Montana study shows A new study compares Montanans’ tolerance for wolves versus their tolerance for hunting them. Its conclusions might surprise you.

A study shows Montanans are growing more tolerant of wolves, with tolerance levels jumping from 41% in 2012 to 74% in 2023.

They found that people’s tolerance for wolves grows through their experiences- positive encounters or not seeing a wolf at all boosts acceptance.

🔗 https://bit.ly/4jqvpsO

🤣

A well-spent day unfolds like a decadent dream, savored moment by moment, bathed in elegance and indulgence. True luxury is never hurried, it’s found in the deliberate embrace of pleasure, connection, and the art of lingering in the beauty of the present 🤍