Dad stuck in support nightmare after teen lied about age on Discord

Brady Frey found himself in a daunting situation when he discovered that his daughter had misrepresented her age to create a Discord account. This revelation came to light after her account was compromised by a hacker, leading Frey into a convoluted struggle to regain control and protect her friends from potential scams. When his daughter initially signed up for Discord at the age of 12, she was below the minimum age requirement. Eager to connect with her peers, she falsely claimed to be over 18. Now 13, she enjoyed using the platform until she was locked out after unwittingly clicking a malicious link from someone pretending to be Discord support. Without two-factor authentication enabled, her account was swiftly taken over by the attacker. Frey’s nightmare escalated when the hacker demanded sensitive banking information from his daughter to restore her account. Expecting a quick response from Discord, Frey was taken aback by the lack of adequate support. Rather than addressing the urgent situation involving a minor, Discord’s automated chatbot and a support representative abruptly closed the support tickets, suggesting that the issue be reported through the inaccessible account. Expressing his disbelief, Frey criticized the support system of a major platform like Discord, stating, “There’s no pathway for a parent to step in and advocate for a minor whose account has been compromised.” After eight frustrating days of attempting to navigate the support system without success, Frey’s concerns went largely ignored until intervention from Ars Technica finally led to action against the hacker.