Discord rolls out new safety features: What to know

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A laptop keyboard and Discord logo displayed on a phone screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on June 16, 2025. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO - Discord is rolling out enhanced teen safety protections worldwide, introducing a "teen-by-default" experience and new age assurance tools aimed at creating safer, age-appropriate interactions across the platform.

What's next:

Starting in early March, Discord will begin a phased global rollout that may require new and existing users to verify their age in order to change certain settings or access sensitive content, including age-restricted channels, servers, commands, and some message requests.

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What they're saying:

"Nowhere is our safety work more important than when it comes to teen users, which is why we are announcing these updates in time for Safer Internet Day," Savannah Badalich, Head of Product Policy at Discord, said in an online news release. "Rolling out teen-by-default settings globally builds on Discord’s existing safety architecture, giving teens strong protections while allowing verified adults flexibility."

"We design our products with teen safety principles at the core and will continue working with safety experts, policymakers, and Discord users to support meaningful, long term wellbeing for teens on the platform." 

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What are the new features?

Dig deeper:

Privacy-forward age assurance

Users can verify their age through facial age estimation or by submitting identification to Discord’s vendor partners, with additional options planned over time. Discord will also deploy an age inference model that operates in the background to help determine whether an account belongs to an adult without always requiring active verification, though some users may be asked to complete more than one method if additional confirmation is needed.

Key privacy protections include:

• On-device processing: Video selfies used for facial age estimation are processed on the user’s device and never leave it.
• Rapid data deletion: Identity documents submitted to vendor partners are deleted quickly, in most cases immediately after age confirmation.
• Limited verification steps: Most users complete age assurance once, with their experience automatically adapting to their verified age group; multiple methods are requested only when necessary.
• Private verification status: A user’s age verification status is not visible to other users.
• Clear user controls: Users receive confirmation via a direct message from Discord’s official account, can view or appeal their assigned age group in "My Account" settings, and are prompted to age-assure only within the Discord app, not by email or text.

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Default safety settings

Discord is also introducing new default safety settings designed to create age-appropriate experiences for users while prioritizing privacy. Beginning in early March, these settings will apply automatically to all new and existing users worldwide, expanding on the teen-by-default experience first launched in the UK and Australia and bringing consistent protections to users globally.

The default safety settings include:

• Content filters: Users must be age-assured as adults to unblur sensitive content or disable content filtering.
• Age-gated spaces: Access to age-restricted channels, servers, and app commands is limited to users verified as adults.
• Message request inbox: Direct messages from people a user may not know are routed to a separate inbox by default, with the ability to change this setting restricted to age-assured adult users.
• Friend request alerts: Users receive warning prompts when they receive friend requests from people they may not know.
• Stage restrictions: Only age-assured adults are permitted to speak on stage in servers.

Teen council

Alongside the rollout of enhanced teen safety features, Discord announced the launch of its first-ever Teen Council, a new advisory group designed to bring teen voices directly into how the platform evolves. The council will be made up of 10 to 12 teens and is intended to ensure Discord better understands how young users connect online, what they need to feel safe, and how to support meaningful interactions without making assumptions on their behalf.