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Discord's mandatory age verification

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Contents12
  1. Discord's Teen-By-Default Age Verification Policy
  2. Methods Of Verification
  3. Partnership with Persona
  4. Background
  5. [Incident]
  6. Discord's response
  7. Lawsuit
  8. Claims
  9. Rebuttal
  10. Outcome
  11. Consumer response
  12. References

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Discord is moving forward with mandatory age verification for many users.[1][2][3] This decision comes on the heels of a data breach in October 2025, which exposed the personal and sensitive information of over 70,000 users. The timing of these changes has raised concerns about user privacy, data security, and the anonymity of being online, which is slowly disappearing.[4][2]

Discord's Teen-By-Default Age Verification Policy

On February 9, 2026, Discord announced its "teen-by-default" policy, which will be launched globally. All new and existing users worldwide will have a teen-appropriate experience by default unless and until Discord determines you are over the age of 18. This feature restricts access to age-gated servers, channels, bot commands, and "select message requests."[3][1] The feature will start to go into effect early March, meaning all new and existing accounts will have to undergo the age verification process to see adult content. But, according to Discord, most users will be unaffected because they do not access adult content.

Individuals who are not age verified will:

  • Be unable to unblur images.
  • Be unable to use age-restricted servers, channels, and app commands.
  • Not be allowed to speak on stages in servers.
  • Have their message request inbox altered, sending requests from those they may not know to a separate inbox.
  • Have warning prompts appear when receiving friend requests from users they may not know.

Methods Of Verification

Currently, there are three methods Discord will use to determine the age of the user: video selfies, ID verification, and its new age inference model. Accounts attempting or currently accessing NSFW content on Discord will automatically have their age estimated by the age inference model. If the assessment is unsure, then you will have to upload a government ID or facial scan to prove you are an adult and access restricted content. Discord claims to want to add more methods of verification in the future to make age verification easier.[1][3]

Age Inference Model

Discord developed its own machine learning system to predict what age group a user falls into. It uses user information like account age, user behavior, and activity to estimate the age of the user. Although Discord hasn't said exactly what information they are using, they have explicitly stated they do not use private messages to determine your age.

ID Verification

Discord may require the user to upload a government-issued ID in order to verify their age. Discord claims that once the photo is submitted, Discord only gets your age information, and the photo is deleted. [1]

Video Selfie/ Facial Scan

If the user doesn't want to submit their ID, they can send a video selfie instead. This requires the user to record their face to estimate their age.

Partnership with Persona

Discord had a partnership with Persona, which Discord then claimed it was only as "experimental".


Background

Discord is a messenger application that is known for several incidents, such as its poor moderation, their poor practices to mantain users' privacy and their history as a tool used for predators to contact minors. In order to comply with the Online Safety Act, Discord rolled an update requiring users to age verify in the UK. Some weeks after this update, it was revealed a third-party service used by Discord suffered a data breach, exposing 70,000 IDs.[4]


[Incident]

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Discord's response

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Lawsuit

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Consumer response

The announcement of global age verification was received with mostly negative comments, causing outrage amongst Discord users. Many privacy and surveillance concerns emerged, specially with the previous 5CA data break that leaked 70,000 IDs. Several users cancelled their Nitro subscription as a form of protest, and some deleted their account and migrated to other messaging and video-calling applications like TeamSpeak, Stoat, Fluxer and Matrix.

This outrage made Discord to post days later an announcement and more information about the age verification concerns, but most users were skeptical about it. Discord also announced they are going to delay the global update.


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally". Discord. 2026-02-09. Archived from the original on 2026-02-09. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Discord Voluntarily Pushes Mandatory Age Verification Despite Recent Data Breach". Effecting Change. 2026-02-12. Archived from the original on 23 Feb 2026. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Bonifield, Stevie (2026-02-09). "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2026-02-12. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Update on a Security Incident Involving Third-Party Customer Service". Discord. 2025-10-03. Archived from the original on 2025-10-03. Retrieved 2026-02-19.

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