In a major shift toward platform safety, Discord announced on February 9, 2026, that it will roll out its age verification program to all users worldwide starting in early March. The move marks the end of the “wild west” era for the communication platform, transitioning every account to a “teen-by-default” experience unless users can prove they are adults.
Under the new policy, Discord is flipping the script on how it handles user permissions. Previously, users largely had access to the platform’s full suite of features unless they were flagged or joined specific age-gated servers. Starting next month, all accounts – both new and existing – will be automatically restricted. For those who do not verify their age, the Discord experience will change significantly. Access to 18+ servers and NSFW channels will be completely blocked, and sensitive or graphic imagery will be blurred by default across all chats. Furthermore, messages from users who are not friends will be filtered into a separate requests folder, while voice participation in Stage channels will be reserved strictly for verified adults.
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To regain full access, Discord is offering a variety of verification methods designed to cater to different privacy comfort levels. The most direct method involves facial age estimation, where users provide a video selfie that is processed on-device. Discord claims this AI-driven estimation happens without sending the actual video to their servers. Alternatively, users can opt for a traditional scan of a government-issued ID. Perhaps most controversial is the implementation of age inference models; this system uses internal metadata, such as gaming habits and account activity patterns, to predict whether a user is likely an adult without requiring a manual document check.
The global rollout comes at a sensitive time for the company. In October 2025, Discord suffered a data breach that exposed the government IDs of roughly 70,000 users, leading to widespread skepticism regarding the platform’s data handling. Addressing these concerns, Discord’s Head of Product Policy, Savannah Badalich, stated that the company has severed ties with the third-party vendor involved in that breach. The new system reportedly prioritizes instant deletion, ensuring that documents are purged immediately after a verification token is generated.
For the millions of communities that call Discord home, the era of unrestricted access is effectively over. While the move is being praised by child safety advocates as a necessary step to protect minors from predatory behavior and inappropriate content, longtime users have expressed concerns over the friction this creates for adult-only hobbyist groups and the potential for “false positives” in the AI inference models. As March approaches, Discord users will have to decide between a restricted, “sanitized” version of the app or handing over personal data to maintain the status quo.
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