Discord rolls out global age verification to all users

Discord has begun rolling out a global age-verification system that automatically sorts users into adult, teen or unconfirmed groups from Wednesday, the company has said.

Co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy announced the launch in a Tuesday blog post, saying more than 90% of users will be classified automatically using existing account signals — account tenure, device and activity data, and the kinds of servers they join. Discord says the system does not read message content, calls, profile data or demographics.

Adults who cannot be identified automatically can appeal with a credit card or age data from their Apple or Google Play account, TechCrunch reports. Dot Esports says Google Wallet, AgeKey, ID scans and facial estimation remain available, with some estimation on-device.

Teen accounts — users aged 13 to 17 — will be blocked from age-restricted servers and channels, with messages from strangers routed to a separate requests inbox and warnings on friend requests from unfamiliar users, according to TechCrunch. Unconfirmed accounts cannot access adult content settings until verified, while messaging and voice stay available.

The rollout had originally been planned for February but was delayed after users objected to ID and selfie checks — concerns sharpened by a 2025 third-party vendor breach that potentially exposed about 70,000 users’ data, including ID photos and selfies.

Discord says the shift is being driven by expanding age-assurance laws, and similar systems have already launched in Brazil and Texas. Automatic estimation will not initially run in the UK and Australia, where different requirements apply.