Discord Rolls Out Global Age Verification, Says Most Adults Won’t Need to Verify

Discord is rolling out a new global age assurance system designed to give teens additional protections while keeping the core experience unchanged for adults. The company says more than 90% of users will not be asked to confirm their age, as accounts will first be placed into an age group using account signals.

Discord will estimate your age group automatically

Starting this week, Discord will automatically place accounts into either the Adult Age Group, Teen Age Group or Unconfirmed category. The company says the system looks at signals such as account age, connected communities, servers, games and general activity levels.

Discord says it does not use messages, calls or other content to determine someone’s age. It also says no single server, community or friend decides an account’s age group. Users can check their status through User Settings > Account Status, although the rollout may take several days to reach every account.

Adults placed in the adult group will see no changes. Teen accounts can still message friends, join voice calls and participate in non-age-restricted servers, but additional protections will apply. Unconfirmed accounts can continue using Discord, although some adult content, spaces and settings will remain unavailable until the user confirms they are an adult.

Image credit: Discord

Discord adds more ways to confirm your age

If Discord gets the age group wrong, adults can confirm their status through several new options. Depending on the region and device, users may be offered credit card verification through Stripe, Apple App Store or Google Play age-range sharing, Google Wallet, AgeKey, a video selfie or an ID scan.

Discord says its vendors only use submitted information to determine the age group and are required to delete it after the check. For facial age estimation, Discord requires the process to happen on the user’s device so biometric data does not leave the phone.

For teens, the new protections cover who can reach them, what they can see and what others can see about them. Messages from non-friends can go to Message Requests, sensitive images can be blurred or blocked, age-restricted servers and channels are unavailable, and profile details and activity have tighter visibility.

Discord says the system will vary slightly by region, and users who have already confirmed their age group will not need to repeat the process. The company also says its age estimation model is not currently available to users in the UK and Australia.