Discord Replaces ID Checks With Automated Adult-or-Teen Sorting

SAN FRANCISCO — Discord is launching an automated system that places users in either an “Adult” or “Teen” category, marking a major shift in its safety strategy after privacy concerns forced the company to halt an earlier verification plan. The communications platform announced the changes this week and has grown to more than 200 million monthly active users.

The system will use internal signals such as account age, server participation, and general activity levels to estimate users’ age brackets. Discord said its automated tools will not scan private direct messages or voice calls for that purpose. Assigned age groups will also remain private rather than appearing on public profiles or being shared with other server members.

Discord estimates that 90 percent of its users will be classified without needing to take further action. Users can see their designation by opening the “Account Status” tab in User Settings. The rollout follows pressure from lawmakers in the United States and regulators in Europe over how social media and messaging services protect young people.

In January, Discord Chief Executive Officer Jason Citron testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee with executives from Meta, TikTok, X, and Snap. Lawmakers sharply criticized the companies over child safety, grooming, and child sexual abuse material on their platforms. The companies are also facing age-gating requirements including the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act and various state-level youth protection laws in the U.S.

Discord had planned earlier this year to require government ID scans or facial age-estimation selfies from users whose adult status could not be verified. Users and digital privacy advocates quickly objected, citing data security and the involvement of third parties in collecting sensitive personal information. Discord announced in February that it would delay the rollout while addressing those concerns.

Teen accounts will have incoming messages from people outside the user’s friends list sent to a “message requests” folder. Discord will also issue warning alerts before a teen accepts a friend request from someone with whom the teen has no mutual friends or common small servers.

The same accounts will be blocked from viewing sensitive media flagged by Discord’s content filters. They will also be barred from joining adult-gated servers and channels or using adult-restricted bot commands. Full profile information and real-time activity status will be visible only to accepted friends and members of smaller shared servers.

Users placed in the “Unconfirmed” category will receive the message request filter and content gates by default. Those restrictions will remain until the users verify their age. Adults who are incorrectly categorized as teens or placed in the “Unconfirmed” group will have access to regional verification alternatives.

Depending on local availability and regulations, users can confirm that they are over 18 through credit card authorizations, Apple App Store or Google Play Store credentials, Google Wallet, or the AgeKey credential service. Traditional ID scans and video selfies will remain available, but Discord now requires every third-party age-assurance vendor to permanently delete user data immediately after verification is completed.

Any facial age-estimation scan must be processed entirely on the user’s local device rather than sent to external servers.