Discord will require age verification starting next month to access certain content, ensuring safer experiences for teens while giving adults full platform features.
San Francisco: Discord plans to start age verification globally next month. All users will get teen-appropriate settings by default unless they prove they are adults. Users must verify their age to access certain features and content.
People need to be verified as adults to unblur sensitive content or change specific settings. Only adults can join age-restricted channels or apps. Messages from unknown people go to a separate inbox by default, and only verified adults can change this.
Users get warnings about friend requests from people they may not know. Only adults can speak onstage in servers. To verify age, users can take a video selfie or send an ID to Discord’s partners.
The video selfie stays on the user’s device and never leaves it. IDs are deleted quickly after age is confirmed. The company had a problem last year when hackers got ID photos from a vendor. Discord started age checks in the U.K. and Australia last year.
“Teen safety comes first,” says Savannah Badalich, head of product policy at Discord. The changes begin in early March and affect both new and existing users.