Community messaging tool Discord is rolling out its controversial age-verification measures to all users, starting today. The feature will mark your account as either an adult or a teen user to help Discord comply with child safety laws in various countries.
The rollout comes after the company delayed its age-verification launch after Discord users raised concerns about the requirement to provide a government ID as a form of identification.
User backlash wasn’t unfounded: an October 2025 breach exposed the government IDs of 70,000 users after one of Discord's third-party vendors was hacked. Less than six months later, Discord was encouraging users to upload their ID to similar tools to confirm their age.
Discord announced its latest measures in a blog post detailing what has changed since the initial controversy. It confirms that most users won’t need to provide ID, citing a belief that 90% of people will be automatically given the correct designation.
The verification tools sort users into either Adult or Teen accounts, with restrictions for younger users, such as blocking access to sensitive images and limiting their interactions with strangers.
Discord uses what it calls “signals” to automatically sort its users, including activity data and account age. Discord says it won’t use private information, including your messages or profile data, to make this decision.
Users assigned to the wrong account type can use multiple methods to dispute their designation. Discord previously planned to let you confirm your age only through facial age estimation or an ID scan. Those options remain, but you can also use a credit card check, a third-party tool called AgeKey, or your age range as determined by the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Some countries also allow you to submit an ID from your Google Wallet.
Discord also confirms it won’t receive your name, ID, or your facial scan; the tools are built to understand what it calls your “age signal.”
“We vet vendors through privacy and security reviews before they're allowed to process any data," Discord said. "Vendors also commit to handling data in specific and limited ways under contractual terms that we set.”
CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy adds, “Age assurance draws strong opinions and skepticism, especially when it involves sharing biometric information or a form of ID. At the same time, age assurance laws are expanding, and since my last post, we've had to launch age assurance in other regions, including in Brazil and in Texas.”