After initial implementation in UK and Australia, Discord now wants to roll out age verification globally from March onward. Whoever does not subject to the face ID process will be dialed into a new “teen-appropriate experience” mode.
Today, Discord has announced that it will require face ID or any other age-verification process globally from the beginning of March. The decision follows on the implementation in the United Kingdom and Australia on 9 December 2025, which was required by new laws in both countries. People who do not complete the age verification process will be reset to a default “teen-appropriate experience” setting that blurs sensitive images (whether automatic or by labeling is unknown), reroutes message request to a separate inbox and gates certain spaces.
The company claims that the verification videos will be processed on the device and that the data that will be sent to “vendor partners” will be “deleted quickly— in most cases, immediately after age confirmation”. It also says the age status of a user cannot be seen by other users on Discord. How exactly Discord plans to protect the data of people who are submitting face idea is as of yet unclear, however. This is especially interesting since Discord only recently got hacked and at least 70,000 ID data sets from UK and Australia users were leaked from the servers.
Savannah Badalich, Head of Product Policy at Discord, has send out the following statement: “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. 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.”
Discord also says it will build a Teen Advisory Board consisting of 10-12 teenagers that will be heard on further decisions. It does not say how exactly the company will be beholden to or implement the teenager’s suggestions or criticisms.
