Labeling this as “teen protection” doesn’t make it any less absurd. Automatically treating everyone like a minor unless they hand over government ID or biometric data is coercion, plain and simple. This isn’t about keeping kids safe, it’s about enforcing identity verification at scale, using the same “for your safety and the safety of the children” language we’ve been hearing everywhere lately. Real safety would mean better tools for communities and moderators, not mass verification tied to personal data. What’s frustrating is how people are being conditioned to accept this as inevitable. Platforms push a little further each time, and if users don’t push back, it becomes the standard. Privacy and anonymity don’t vanish overnight, they erode slowly. Add in Discord’s multiple data breaches over the past months, and the idea that we should just trust them with IDs or face scans is laughable. This is one of those moments where walking away might matter more than people think.