Discord Announces New Age Restrictions to Enhance Teen Safety, Rolling Out Globally in March

Discord is implementing significant changes to its platform next month, introducing age-based restrictions designed to create a safer environment for younger users. The new system, which defaults to stricter settings for teen accounts, aims to balance community access with protective measures for minors.

Key Changes Effective March 2026

Starting in early March, Discord will apply "progressive gating." This means users will only be prompted to verify their age when attempting to access age-restricted features or content, not universally. Core chat functions will remain accessible without verification.

Age verification will be required to:

• View unblurred sensitive media.
• Access age-restricted channels and servers.
• Speak in Stage channels.
• Use specific commands designated for adult users.
• Modify default safety settings (which remain locked for unverified teens).

Default Safety Settings for Teens
Accounts believed to belong to users under 18 will automatically have stringent protections enabled, including:

• Sensitive media automatically blurred.
• Message Requests from non-friends filtered into a separate inbox.
• Restrictions on accessing age-gated content.
• Inability to speak on Stage channels.
• Prompts warning about friend requests from unknown users.

These defaults are intended to reduce exposure to unwanted contact, potential grooming, social engineering, and harmful content.

Age Assurance and Privacy
Discord will use a multi-faceted approach to age assurance:

1. Age Inference: The platform will analyze account activity and signals to infer if a user is an adult, potentially reducing verification steps for many.
2. Direct Verification: For higher-stakes access, Discord will partner with third-party services offering facial age estimation (processed on-device for privacy) or ID document scanning. Submitted IDs are promptly deleted post-verification.

The company emphasizes that age verification will only occur in-app when accessing restricted features. Discord will not send verification results via email or text, a critical detail to help users identify potential phishing attempts mimicking this process.

Context and Future Development
This global rollout follows pilot programs in the UK and Australia, partly driven by regulatory standards like the UK's Online Safety Act. Discord also announced the formation of a Teen Council (ages 13-17) in the U.S. to provide ongoing feedback, ensuring safety features remain practical and respectful of young users' needs.

What Users Should Know

• Adult users who verify their age can adjust safety settings.
• Unverified teen accounts will operate with the protective defaults locked in place.
• The changes are designed to comply with growing global regulations concerning online safety for minors while maintaining core functionality.

Discord's move reflects a broader industry trend toward implementing more robust, age-appropriate digital safety infrastructures.

For daily updates on cybersecurity and platform safety changes, follow us on Google News, LinkedIn, and X.

```