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Teen Vigilance: Navigating Risky Social Interactions on Discord

Elena Koung, Yunhan Liu, Zinan Zhang, Xinning Gui, Yubo Kou

TL;DR

It is revealed that when teenagers encounter risks during social interactions, they exercise vigilance by evaluating suspicious interactions before forming friendships, using safety tools, and engaging in controlled risk-taking to safeguard their privacy and security.

Abstract

Teenagers are avid users of Discord, a fast growing platform for synchronous communication where they often interact with strangers. Because Discord combines private DMs, semi-private voice channels, and public servers in one place, it creates a hybrid environment that can produce complex and underexplored safety risks for teenagers. Drawing on 16 interviews with teenage Discord users, this study examines their strategies for navigating risky social interactions in the platform. Our findings reveal that when teenagers encounter risks during social interactions, they exercise vigilance by evaluating suspicious interactions before forming friendships, using safety tools, and engaging in controlled risk-taking to safeguard their privacy and security. At the community level, they mitigate risks through selective participation in servers, a practice supported by vigilant governance structures. We discuss how vigilance enables teenagers to act during risky encounters to protect themselves, advancing understanding of teenagers' agency in risk navigation and informing teen-centered designs for safer online environments.

Teen Vigilance: Navigating Risky Social Interactions on Discord

TL;DR

It is revealed that when teenagers encounter risks during social interactions, they exercise vigilance by evaluating suspicious interactions before forming friendships, using safety tools, and engaging in controlled risk-taking to safeguard their privacy and security.

Abstract

Teenagers are avid users of Discord, a fast growing platform for synchronous communication where they often interact with strangers. Because Discord combines private DMs, semi-private voice channels, and public servers in one place, it creates a hybrid environment that can produce complex and underexplored safety risks for teenagers. Drawing on 16 interviews with teenage Discord users, this study examines their strategies for navigating risky social interactions in the platform. Our findings reveal that when teenagers encounter risks during social interactions, they exercise vigilance by evaluating suspicious interactions before forming friendships, using safety tools, and engaging in controlled risk-taking to safeguard their privacy and security. At the community level, they mitigate risks through selective participation in servers, a practice supported by vigilant governance structures. We discuss how vigilance enables teenagers to act during risky encounters to protect themselves, advancing understanding of teenagers' agency in risk navigation and informing teen-centered designs for safer online environments.
Paper Structure (33 sections, 7 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 33 sections, 7 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background
  3. Related Work
  4. Online Social Platforms Pose Safety Risks for Teenagers
  5. Online Safety Strategies for Teenagers
  6. Methodology
  7. Recruitment and Data Collection
  8. Data Analysis
  9. Researcher Positionality Statement
  10. Ethical Considerations
  11. Findings
  12. Balancing Risk Exposure when Pursuing Interpersonal Connections on Discord
  13. Recognizing Suspicious Users through Investigating Deceptive Methods
  14. Evaluating Intentions During Connection Development Using Linguistic Cues
  15. Applying Restrictive Functionalities to Selectively Manage Direct Interactions
  16. ...and 18 more sections

Figures (7)

  • Figure 1: Discord’s Direct Message Interface allows users to talk to others privately. “username1” sends an invite to the server: “ServerName”(A). Then, “teenager” accepts the invite by clicking on the link so that they can further interact in a shared server space. Users can navigate to joined servers by clicking on the server icon (B).
  • Figure 2: Discord server of “ServerName.” Server list can be seen in the left sidebar (A). Text Channels (B), one for rules, one locked channel, and one general chat channel. It includes one Voice Channel (C). Members can chat together in general chat (D). Member list can be seen in the right sidebar (E).
  • Figure 3: Soundboard menu featuring various sound clips. After joining a voice channel, users can navigate to the soundboard and click on sound clips that plays for everyone in the call to hear.
  • Figure 4: Discover menu featuring various official servers moderated by the developer team and community managers. The top menu bar allows users to navigate and explore categories of interest.
  • Figure 5: Screenshot demonstrating the “Message Request” feature. Shows how “Message Requests” are separate from DMs and further separated into spam. On this page, users have the choice to “Ignore” or “Accept DM.”
  • ...and 2 more figures