Discord's mandatory age verification

Discord is moving forward with mandatory age verification for many users. 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.

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."^[1] The feature will start to go into affect 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 and will not have to upload a face scan or an ID because they will be automatically verified with Discord's age inference model.

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. Discord claims to want to add more methods of verification in the future to make age verification easier.

Age Inference Model

ID Verification

As expected

Video Selfie

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References

↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :0

^[1]^[2]^[3]

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↑ 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.
↑ "Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally". Discord. 2026-02-09. Archived from the original on 2026-02-09. Retrieved 2026-02-19.
↑ "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.

[:0-1] Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :0

[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.

[:0-3] "Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally". Discord. 2026-02-09. Archived from the original on 2026-02-09. Retrieved 2026-02-19.

[4] "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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