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Fall is here! With leaves changing, school starting, work deadlines and less sunlight, there’s so much to do and so little time! With so much happening at once, sometimes life can feel overwhelming and stressful — especially for teens and students. Community can help us all to feel less alone, offer guidance, and just be a place to share and support one another.
As part of our growing efforts to support each other and our communities on Discord, we’re thrilled to share some new updates and resources related to mental health and belonging.
Mental wellness is important for everyone. Discord is partnering with Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit that provides 24/7 text-based mental health support and crisis intervention via trained volunteer Crisis Counselors.
If you report a message for self-harm within the Discord mobile app, you will be presented with information on how to connect with a Crisis Text Line volunteer Crisis Counselor. You can also text ‘DISCORD’ to 741741 to reach Crisis Text Line counselors available 24/7 to help you or a friend through any mental health crisis. Our goal is to enable users to get the help they need for themselves, or empower others to get help, as quickly as possible.
Crisis Text Line is available to those in the United States and is offered in both English and Spanish.
We’re constantly improving and expanding our approach to teen safety and wellbeing on Discord. That’s why we’re proud to support the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital to help ground our approach to teen safety and belonging in the latest scientific research and best practices. The Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital convenes leaders in technology, scientific research, healthcare, child development, media, entertainment, and education to deepen understanding and address the future of how young people can engage healthily with media and technology. We’re excited to work with the Digital Wellness Lab to help develop ways to better support teen mental health, both online and off.
Back-to-school season is a great time for families to rethink and reset their relationship with technology. To help out, Discord is rolling out a new program with National PTA to help families and educators discuss ways to foster positive relationships and build belonging in our digital world. Through the program, free resources will be provided, along with breakout activities and digital safety tips for families. As part of National PTA’s PTA Connected program, Discord will also fund 30 grants for local high school PTAs to pilot the program during the 2022–2023 school year.
Parents, want some help starting a conversation about digital safety with your family or at your school? Check out National PTA’s PTA Connected page for everything you need.
Beyond our work with Crisis Text Line, Digital Wellness Lab, and National PTA, we continue to build out efforts and resources that help people on Discord build belonging and support one another to overcome the impossible. Finding a community that is navigating similar challenges can be incredibly helpful for healing.
That said, platforms have a critical role to play to ensure these digital spaces don’t attempt to normalize or promote hurtful behaviors or encourage other users to engage in acts of self-harm. We recently expanded our Self Harm Encouragement and Promotion Policy to ensure this type of content is addressed on Discord. We do not allow any content or behavior that promotes or encourages individuals to commit acts of self-harm on Discord. We also prohibit content that seeks to normalize self-harming behaviors, as well as content that discourages individuals from seeking help for self-harm behaviors.
We’re committed to mental wellbeing and helping our users uplift each other and their communities. Our newly-implemented partnerships and resources developed with the support of the Crisis Text Line, Digital Wellness Lab, and National PTA are an important addition to our ongoing work to give everyone the power to create space to find belonging in their lives.
