Discord Might Force You to Prove Your Age to Avoid Losing Features

On Monday, Discord announced its plan to begin rolling out global mandatory age verification. Starting in March, new and existing accounts will start moving over to a “teen-by-default” setting, which will lock certain chats and features away until either the account’s owner proves they’re an adult or Discord’s AI age prediction figures it out for them.

Here’s what you’ll lose when age verification goes into effect, how to get it back—and, for good measure, a look at your other options.

What you’ll lose if Discord doesn’t know your age

In its announcement, Discord said the new age verification settings will start with a “phased global rollout” in March, so it may be some time until it hits you. However, once the changes make their way to your region, you’ll lose access to the following features until your the app knows your age:

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• Age-restricted channels and servers: This is the most obvious one. Any channels that are set to adults only will now be off-limits to your account until you verify your age. In some cases, this could include whole servers, or, depending on the server, certain app commands.

• Spicy content: Until you verify your age, Discord’s content filters will be active for you, and the app will blur any images it thinks are too sensitive or graphic.

• Message requests: Direct messages from people you don’t know will now go to a separate inbox.

• Speaking in Stages: Accounts that aren’t age-verified won’t be able to speak in Stage channels, which are livestreams where a few server members can broadcast to everyone on the server at once.

• Warnings on friend requests: This one adds something rather than taking it away. Until you verify your age, you’ll now see a warning prompt when getting a friend request from someone you don’t know.

How to verify your age in Discord

Discord has three ways to verify your age, and it will tell you if you need to go through the process. To the platform’s credit, it won’t suddenly strip away a bunch of features from you without explanation.

Discord may use AI to verify you automatically

The simplest way Discord verifies age is through age prediction (presumably powered by AI), a process the company clarified it uses on Tuesday, in the wake of outcry over its initial announcement that it will now label accounts as “teen-by-default.” Age prediction essentially allows the app to guess whether you’re an adult based on how you use it or other information Discord already has about you, such as your login email. This functionality could allow you to continue to use age-gated features without having to go through an age verification process, provided the AI has enough evidence to assume you’re of age.

It’s similar to solutions already implemented by other apps like YouTube, and is the best option if you don’t want to be locked out of basic app functionality, but also don’t want to be bothered with providing personal identifying information to Discord. Unfortunately, you can’t exactly choose to use this one, and will have to rely on the app’s AI to mark you as eligible for it instead.

Discord says that “the vast majority of people can continue using Discord exactly as they do today, without ever being asked to confirm their age,” so the company seems to think that most people will qualify for AI age prediction, at least. That said, I do wonder whether it will work for new accounts or for accounts like mine, which are used infrequently.

Take a selfie or scan your ID

If you need to verify your age manually, you have two options. To start verifying your age on Discord, either click Get Started on a prompt the platform should send you once it determines you need to verify manually, or navigate to User Settings > My Account > Age Group to see your current age group and verify from there.

Now, you can either take a video selfie or scan a valid government ID. For video selfies, select Take a selfie from the verification page, follow the on-screen instructions, and click Done to submit. For verifying through a government ID, select Use your ID, scan the provided QR code with your mobile device, take a clear photo of your ID on said device, and tap Done to submit.

Discord says that video selfies used for age verification are processed purely on-device, and that while photos of government IDs do go to “vendor partners” for verification, they are “deleted quickly—in most cases, immediately after age confirmation.”

Once you’ve submitted your video selfie or ID, the app will then begin the process of assigning you an “age group,” which you’ll be able to see under User Settings > My Account > Age Group. Discord says most users only need to verify once, but that you might need to provide a government ID in addition to a video selfie if the app can’t confidently determine your age from just a face scan. You’re also able to attempt re-verification at any time, but if the app determines that you’re under the 13-year-old minimum for using Discord, your account will be banned. (You can appeal this and attempt to re-instate your Discord account via an ID.)

According to Discord, the age verification process “typically takes just a few minutes,” and you’ll get a notification and DM once it’s completed.

Discord alternatives that don’t use age verification

As countries around the world add new laws for age verification online (Discord mentions the UK and Australia in particular), it seems like Discord is just throwing its hands up and deciding to play it as safe as possible by taking the feature global. I’m sure it also has nothing to do with the company’s upcoming IPO, its past drama over lax protections for teens, and a need to look friendly for investors. The move mimics similar decisions from Google, ChatGPT, and Roblox, but even adult users might be uncomfortable with it, since the age verification process means they might need to show the company—and the company’s third-party processors—personal identifying information to comply with it.

If that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, there are a few Discord alternatives you can try that don’t yet require age verification, although they might not completely match the app’s feature set:

• Slack: Discord basically stole Slack’s entire flow, and that’s great news for anyone looking for a Discord alternative. About the only Discord feature missing here is persistent voice channels, although you can still talk to others over voice using huddles. Slack can be a strong Discord replacement or supplement to another Discord replacement, but if you’re a teen looking for a new home, be careful. Technically, users under 16 are banned from Slack, according to the app’s terms of service.

• TeamSpeak: TeamSpeak has been updated since the 2000s to match many of Discord’s features, including adding persistent chat channels. However, it’s still lagging behind on some features, like video chat. Additionally, only 32 users can be in a free TeamSpeak server at a time. This is what I used as a teen before moving onto other platforms.

• Mumble and Ventrilo: These are no-frills, voice-first clients that primarily focus on privacy and low latency connections, with Mumble even being open source. They aren’t as robust as Discord, but they could serve as a strong voice channel supplement to another Discord alternative, like Slack.

Update 2/10/26: Added clarification from Discord that it will use AI age verification tools that will prevent most adults from having to manually verify their ages.

Originally published at Lifehacker