{"id":416364,"date":"2026-02-09T15:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/416364\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T15:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:40:09","slug":"discord-will-require-a-face-scan-or-id-for-full-access-next-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/416364\/","title":{"rendered":"Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discord announced on Monday<\/a> that it\u2019s rolling out age verification on its platform globally starting next month, when it will automatically set all users\u2019 accounts to a \u201cteen-appropriate\u201d experience unless they demonstrate that they\u2019re adults.<\/p>\n

Users who aren\u2019t verified as adults will not be able to access age-restricted servers and channels, won\u2019t be able to speak in Discord\u2019s livestream-like \u201cstage\u201d channels<\/a>, and will see content filters for any content Discord detects as graphic or sensitive. They will also get warning prompts for friend requests from potentially unfamiliar users, and DMs from unfamiliar users will be automatically filtered into a separate inbox.<\/p>\n

Direct messages and servers that are not age-restricted will continue to function normally, but users won\u2019t be able to send messages or view content in an age-restricted server until they complete the age check process, even if it\u2019s a server they were part of before age verification rolled out. Savannah Badalich, Discord\u2019s global head of product policy, said in an interview with The Verge that those servers will be \u201cobfuscated\u201d with a black screen until the user verifies they\u2019re an adult. Users also won\u2019t be able to join any new age-restricted servers without verifying their age.<\/p>\n

\"Discord<\/a>\"Discord<\/a>PreviousNext<\/p>\n

1\/2Unverified users won\u2019t be able to enter age-restricted servers. Image: Discord<\/p>\n

Discord\u2019s global age verification launch is part of a wave of similar moves<\/a> at other online platforms, driven by an international legal push for age checks and stronger child safety measures. This is not the first time Discord has implemented some form of age verification, either. It initially rolled out age checks for users in the UK and Australia<\/a> last year, which some users figured out how to circumvent using Death Stranding\u2019s photo mode<\/a>. Badalich says Discord \u201cimmediately fixed it after a week,\u201d but expects users will continue finding creative ways to try getting around the age checks, adding that Discord will \u201ctry to bug bash as much as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just teens trying to cheat the system who might attempt to dodge age checks. Adult users could avoid verifying, as well, due to concerns around data privacy, particularly if they don\u2019t want to use an ID to verify their age. In October, one of Discord\u2019s former third-party vendors suffered a data breach<\/a> that exposed users\u2019 age verification data, including images of government IDs.<\/p>\n

A government ID might still be required for age verification in its global rollout. According to Discord, to remove the new \u201cteen-by-default\u201d changes and limitations, \u201cusers can choose to use facial age estimation or submit a form of identification to [Discord\u2019s] vendor partners, with more options coming in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first option uses AI to analyze a user\u2019s video selfie, which Discord says never leaves the user\u2019s device. If the age group estimate (teen or adult) from the selfie is incorrect, users can appeal it or verify with a photo of an identity document instead. That document will be verified by a third party vendor, but Discord says the images of those documents \u201care deleted quickly \u2014 in most cases, immediately after age confirmation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Users can view and update their age group from their profile. Image: Discord<\/p>\n

Badalich also says after the October data breach, Discord \u201cimmediately stopped doing any sort of age verification flows with that vendor\u201d and is now using a different third-party vendor. She adds that, \u201cWe\u2019re not doing biometric scanning [or] facial recognition. We\u2019re doing facial estimation. The ID is immediately deleted. We do not keep any information around like your name, the city that you live in, if you used a birth certificate or something else, any of that information.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, some users may not have to go through either form of age verification. Discord is also rolling out an age inference model that analyzes metadata like the types of games a user plays, their activity on Discord, and behavioral signals like signs of working hours or the amount of time they spend on Discord.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have a high confidence that they are an adult, they will not have to go through the other age verification flows,\u201d Badalich says.<\/p>\n

\u201cA majority of people are not going to see a change in their experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

She goes on to explain that the addition of age assurance will mainly impact adult content: \u201cA majority of people on Discord are not necessarily looking at explicit or graphic content. When we say that, we\u2019re really talking about things that are truly adult content [and] age inappropriate for a teen. So, the way that it will work is a majority of people are not going to see a change in their experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, there\u2019s still a risk that some users will leave Discord as a result of the age verification rollout. \u201cWe do expect that there will be some sort of hit there, and we are incorporating that into what our planning looks like,\u201d Badalich says. \u201cWe\u2019ll find other ways to bring users back.\u201d<\/p>\n

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See All Tech<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Discord announced on Monday that it\u2019s rolling out age verification on its platform globally starting next month, when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[226,205,59,50,16332,305,227,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-416364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-apps","9":"tag-gaming","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pc-gaming","13":"tag-policy","14":"tag-tech","15":"tag-technology","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}