Change to Discord Rules - Discord TOS

Please Note: The TotalFreedom Forum has now been put into a read-only mode. Total Freedom has now closed down and will not be returning in any way, shape or form. It has been a pleasure to lead this community and I wish you all the best for your futures.

    Hi Folks,

    I normally wouldn't make this as a forum announcement, but given a lot of the recent controversy over bans we have issued for individuals being under the age of 13 which has made its way to the forums I figure this is a good place to make the announcement while the Discord information tab is updated.

    Going forward, we are now removing the Section 1 (Indef Ban) Exception for violation of the Discord Terms & Conditions whereby we would formally revoke the ban when the user is 13 (Or the age as defined by their region if different). As a result going forward we will be treating any users under the age of 13 as an indefinite Discord ban for breaking the terms & conditions.

    The reason behind this is that the account was still created prior to the user being aged 13, and as such it's existence continues to actively violate the Discord Terms And Conditions which we are bound by. There will be no exceptions to this change going forward.

    I will also clarify, where a ban is issued, the burden of proof is on the Discord Staff team to be satisfied that the user is indeed under the age of 13 (Or age appropriate if regions are different) at the time they are in the Discord, and the individual stating such in game, discord or anywhere else is deemed enough.

    Once the ban has been issued we all not allow it to be appealed. Users will be required to create a new Discord account when they are 13 or older in line with the Discord TOS, at which point they can re-join.

    Wild1145

    Network Owner at TotalFreedom

    Managing Director at ATLAS Media Group Ltd.

    Founder & Owner at MastodonApp.UK

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    ↩ @'Ryan' The process for this will be to provide the Discord Manager or myself a picture of government issued ID

    What can people show if government doesn't issue them an ID at the age they're allowed to be in Discord?
    Example: Italian users can join if they're 14 or above but an ID is issued only at age 15. Nvm looks like Italy has recently changed rules with the new electronic ID card.

    TotalFreedom's Executive Community & Marketing Manager

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    The reason behind this is that the account was still created prior to the user being aged 13, and as such it’s existence continues to actively violate the Discord Terms And Conditions which we are bound by. There will be no exceptions to this change going forward.

    I decided to review the discord TOS. There is no mention of "if the account was created when the user is under 13, and they turn 13, it still violates the TOS." The Terms only require a user to be 13 and the minimum digital consent age for their respective country to continue using discord within the terms. By the logic of discord's own TOS, the account no longer violates the terms once the user is 13. The paragraph below is the only instance where age was mentioned in the Terms that I could find.

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    By using or accessing the Discord application (the “App”) or the website located at https://discord.com (the "Site"), which are collectively referred to as the “Service,” you agree (i) that you are 13 years of age and the minimum age of digital consent in your country, (ii) if you are the age of majority in your jurisdiction or over, that you have read, understood, and accept to be bound by the Terms, and (iii) if you are between 13 (or the minimum age of digital consent, as applicable) and the age of majority in your jurisdiction, that your legal guardian has reviewed and agrees to these Terms.

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    lol

    as if every latest gen folk on the internet hasn't made at LEAST one social media related account while under the age of thirteen (including discord for the younger audience)

    provide id to join total freedom's MINECRAFT discord server, which already has nsfw discourged and similar things in order to be more "child friendly"

    ↩  Shyrix We are not worried about other social medias or who made their accounts where and when.

    The Discord Underage Policy applies on those members that were caught being underage following the violation of Discord Terms & Conditions, no user is required to submit their personal Identification upon joining the discord but that doesn't mean joining upon knowing that Discord bans the usage of their platform per guidelines to underage minors.

    Our job is to protect the community and play by Discord's TOS and Guidelines, it's not within our rights to question the policy of that platform that we are using for free.

    I have a question regarding this announcement.
    Where in the TOS does it state that a user that was previously underage and had a discord account could never use the account, as it was created after they were no longer underage?

    Endermatter Cat-Person with wings and Magic who follows the Cat Religion.

    "Never Surrender."

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    ↩  Zarcana Where in the TOS does it state that a user that was previously underage and had a discord account could never use the account, as it was created after they were no longer underage?

    Nowhere, I also pasted above the only instances of 13 being mentioned in the ToS, and nowhere does it say, "you cannot use an account you made when you were under 13 when you turn 13 because it breaches the ToS." That little rule is just a made-for-TF policy by Ryan.

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    ↩  Tizz What can people show if government doesn’t issue them an ID at the age they’re allowed to be in Discord?

    Generally speaking people can get passports from birth, so there should be no reason someone couldn't get a government issued identification source prior to being 13 or even after being older than 13.

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    ↩  videogamesm12 So quick question. What if your account is several years old but was made like months before you turned 13? Do you still get indefinitely banned from the Discord for something you did years ago?

    Yes. Your account violated the Discord TOS at sign-up and as a result could not have agreed to their terms, as such the account should have been banned by discord, and we will ban it. Generally I can't see this happening (Other than for the next few weeks while everyone is a drama queen about this), but strictly speaking it would be a violation of the TOS as you agreed to them at sign-up, therefore we would ban it under the Section 1 offence in Discord for violating their Terms & Conditions.

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    ↩  Alco_Rs11 I decided to review the discord TOS. There is no mention of “if the account was created when the user is under 13, and they turn 13, it still violates the TOS.” The Terms only require a user to be 13 and the minimum digital consent age for their respective country to continue using discord within the terms. By the logic of discord’s own TOS, the account no longer violates the terms once the user is 13. The paragraph below is the only instance where age was mentioned in the Terms that I could find.

    The point is they couldn't have consented to those terms at the point of sign-up, and as a result their accounts existence is a violation of those terms... That's the reason.

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    ↩  Shyrix as if every latest gen folk on the internet hasn’t made at LEAST one social media related account while under the age of thirteen (including discord for the younger audience)

    I don't risk my account getting permanently banned and the community removed if someone is under 13 on any other platform, I do on Discord.

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    ↩  Shyrix provide id to join total freedom’s MINECRAFT discord server, which already has nsfw discourged and similar things in order to be more “child friendly”

    Or don't go around yelling that you're under 13 or shit like that, and nobody would notice and/or care...

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    ↩  Zarcana Where in the TOS does it state that a user that was previously underage and had a discord account could never use the account, as it was created after they were no longer underage?

    See above reply in here.

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    ↩ @'dillon ' Still sketchy that this ID stuff is being implemented, stop doing discords job for them and maybe focus on bringing players in rather than pushing them away

    If Discord permban my account and delete our Discord, we won't have a community left. Again, if you make yourself known to be under the age of 13 then you should expect to be sanctioned. If you don't go shouting about being under 13, literally nobody is going to care.

    Wild1145

    Network Owner at TotalFreedom

    Managing Director at ATLAS Media Group Ltd.

    Founder & Owner at MastodonApp.UK

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    ↩ @'Ryan' Your account violated the Discord TOS at sign-up and as a result could not have agreed to their terms, as such the account should have been banned by discord, and we will ban it.

    This is TF. I have the feeling a lot of people, staff included, should actually be banned under the new rules, and could come out in spite of you, crippling the already not ideal community. Can we really afford it?

    TotalFreedom's Executive Community & Marketing Manager

    ↩  Tizz It's the trade off between enforcing the TOS like we're supposed to as a community and as a server registered as a Discord Community Server, and risking Discord burning it...

    As I said, more than a few times. I have Zero intention of banning people for accounts that were registered prior to the age of 13, other than where they go "Hey, My account was registered before I was 13, isn't that a laugh".

    This change is designed to simplify the process, and remove the "I'm 13 and don't want to prove it" problem, which I can also understand, I wouldn't share my ID if I was 13, I'm not disagreeing that it's a problem, but at the same time we have to be mindful that Discord frankly is at this point the centre point of the community, and if we lose it, it would be devastating to our ability to function and grow. Not to mention, I quite frankly like my Discord account, I don't want it getting burnt because someone decided to violate the TOS in a server I own.

    Wild1145

    Network Owner at TotalFreedom

    Managing Director at ATLAS Media Group Ltd.

    Founder & Owner at MastodonApp.UK

    Updated to allow the ID Verification route entirely and move to simply doing what every other server does things and simply indef ban them.

    Wild1145

    Network Owner at TotalFreedom

    Managing Director at ATLAS Media Group Ltd.

    Founder & Owner at MastodonApp.UK

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    ↩ @'FT ' their continued use of Discord after turning 13 implies their consent to the terms, which is valid from a legal standpoint. punishing redeastwood or video or anyone who created their account before 13 and who are now above 13 is obviously just out of spite. you can be better than this.

    I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not willing to risk that not being the case. You agree to the Terms & Conditions at sign-up, if you are violating them from the start, I have no intention of supporting you continuing to do so. Your account shouldn't exist if you created it prior to being 13. Again, as I've said in this thread, I can't see people getting banned for this outside of the next couple of weeks when people challenge it to make a scene, but I wanted to be transparent in that the staff team very much may if there is strong evidence to prove you created your account prior to being 13 (Or you shout about it as I said). Red was banned because he on more than one occasionally publicly stated he created his account when he was under 13, as a result my hands were tied because it was a TOS Violation, and as such a Cat 1 Indef ban from Discord.

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    ↩ @'FT ' in other words, purely out of spite.

    No, purely out of enforcing the Discord Terms & Conditions that we are bound by.

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    ↩ @'FT ' awful move. you’re going to destroy your own community or turn it against you if you remain actively hostile towards it.

    The community refused any other options. They didn't want it to be corporate or providing ID or anything that could give me a strong argument to Discord if they came to me and threatened to close us down, so we're doing the only thing left.

    Again, people seem to be blowing this quite a bit out of scale... We were previously not enforcing the TOS as strictly as we should have been, and we agreed that we would un-ban accounts when they reach the age of 13 and we can be CONFIDENT that they have reached that age, now we're going for the easier route of banning the account as if it was any other TOS Violation.

    This is not the outcome I wanted, but I'm struggling to find any other alternative now without just ignoring the Discord TOS entirely which I can't see ending well for anyone... I for one am not willing to risk losing my Discord account over this, much less the TF Discord and other Discord servers I own.

    Wild1145

    Network Owner at TotalFreedom

    Managing Director at ATLAS Media Group Ltd.

    Founder & Owner at MastodonApp.UK

    I must note that Discord actually doesn't care too much about accounts created when the owner was a minor but now isn't. When they started requiring date of birth to access NSFW channels back in 2019-2021 (which usually leads to an account deletion if you give it information that makes it think it's 12), I ended up putting my date of birth in and it didn't give a shit.

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    In response to the recent situations in regards to community members joining our discord server while underage (depending on your region), my point is going to be straightforward and it will be the only time that I will be posting publicly about it unless policy changes to where I or Ryan see fit.

    Users whom have created their accounts before reaching the age of 13 hence accepting the TOC and violating it first hand will be indefinitely banned from the discord as an alternative to the Identification requirement to be unbanned. - However, if we find a better alternative that doesn't include the ID Proof or users facing an indefinite punishment then feel free to suggest as you wish.

    As for the members who have created their accounts and are still underage, let it be known as long as no one finds out and you don't speak of it freely within our network servers, being the discord, forums and other TF platforms then do know that we will not be out there to get you.

    In basic English: Don't be an idiot and proudly announce that you're a kid just to get some ego out of it for breaking a policy just to receive those extra likes on the forums. Just shut up about it and don't mention it

    The Discord Moderation Team have every right to discuss and enforce the correct sanctions in regards to users that violate the TOS, while some rules are different than others, we're trying to keep a clean record.

    I'm very aware of the idea that disagreeing with server policies by joking about it or challenging it has been normalized, not anymore, for arguing and insulting the other party just because you think a majority subjective view will change something that has been decided on by the leadership of said platform, I suggest try escaping your tea bubble. - You're welcome to give your opinion in a mature manner, where a decent discussion can be taken place between the leadership and community.

    With that being said, as long as you're on Discord, follow their guidelines and TOS as you usually do, and don't be mad about something too petty.