Discord has dropped the gut-wrenching news that its controversial age verification methods will be coming online globally for all users starting next month.
All existing users will apparently find themselves flagged as “teen” specific until such time as they demonstrate that they’re adults using either a webcam based face scan to determine age, or upload a government issued ID.
Discord will soon be expanding teen safety protections worldwide including teen-by-default settings and age assurance designed to create safer experiences for teens.
— Discord Support (@discord_support) February 9, 2026
We’re also launching recruitment for Discord's first Teen Council, creating a space for teen voices to help shape… pic.twitter.com/CW7G4sO38R
Users that remain unverified will face significant platform restrictions, including being barred from age-restricted servers and Discords livestreaming “Stage” channels. Discord will also move to enforce strict content filters for graphic material and automatically segregate DMs from strangers into a separate inbox.
It is all a bit rich given that the pilot of this system was rolled out across both Australian and UK users earlier, and was almost immediately met with an embarrassing data breach in September of 2025 that saw things like names, usernames, emails, and the last four digits of credit card numbers accessed by an unauthorised party. Oh and you better believe they managed to nab images of government IDs while they were at it. Hooray.
At least this time there is a claim from the end of Discord this time that “Identity documents are deleted quickly, usually immediately after age confirmation”, though I only feel this is necessary to mention as a possible catalyst for future questioning when another breach occurs. 70,000 users had their ID photos exposed previously, so you would hope there is a hefty lesson learned there.
In a statement to The Verge, Discord head of product policy Savannah Badalich has stated that they expect “some sort of hit” to its traffic as a result of this requirement, but follow up with, “We’ll find other ways to bring users back.”
You can read more about this changes on Discord’s website here: http://dis.gd/teen-safety
How do you feel about more and more apps requiring government ID age verification? Tell us all about it in the comments, or on our social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games
