Discord rolling out face ID age verification measures soon

3 days ago 2

Published Feb 9, 2026, 12:00 PM EST

Users will now have age-restricted settings by default

Discord’s rebrand key art, which shows colorful characters hanging out together on a blue background

Discord announced on Monday that it will be launching "teen-by-default" settings globally next month. In essence, this means that you'll have to jump through some hoops to use the service in full as the default options now will restrict access to certain age-gated spaces and filter content that's age-inappropriate for teenagers. Unlocking Discord's full suite of features will start with sharing your face with the company.

Discord is a messaging platform often favored by gamers. As such, it's been integrated into PlayStation and Xbox ecosystems in recent years. You can also stay at Discord for your virtual tabletop sessions now that Roll20 can be launched directly through the platform. Over the past few years, in no small part due to the connectivity it provided during COVID, Discord has become close to ubiquitous in gaming spaces.

"Discord users can choose to use facial age estimation or submit a form of identification to its vendor partners, with more options coming in the future," the official announcement reads. The company assures it will protect users' privacy as video selfies will never leave your device, documents submitted to Discord's "vendor partners" will be swiftly deleted after a user's age has been verified, and a user's age verification status will not be seen by others. It says the verification process will only need to be completed once "in most cases."

Starting in early March, every Discord user's settings will be age-restricted by default, with the platform treating everyone as a teenager. Going through the age verification process will unlock features that longtime users have become accustomed to. From the official announcement, they include:

Content Filters: Discord users will need to be age-assured as adults in order to unblur sensitive content or turn off the setting.
Age-gated Spaces: Only users who are age-assured as adults will be able to access age-restricted channels, servers, and app commands.
Message Request Inbox: Direct messages from people a user may not know are routed to a separate inbox by default, and access to modify this setting is limited to age-assured adult users.
Friend Request Alerts: People will receive warning prompts for friend requests from users they may not know.
Stage Restrictions: Only age-assured adults may speak on stage in servers.

Teenagers with Discord accounts will not have access to these features. "Rolling out teen-by-default settings globally builds on Discord’s existing safety architecture, giving teens strong protections while allowing verified adults flexibility," Discord head of product policy Savannah Badalich said in the announcement. It's not dissimilar to Roblox's age verification system that was implemented last fall. Discord started testing a similar system itself in the UK in 2025; a hack that year may have exposed thousands of government-issued IDs.

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