Discord announced on Monday it will change accounts to default to a Teen age category, requiring those who use the popular communication service to verify their age if they want to access adult-restricted servers, avoid having age-flagged content blocked or host Stage livestreaming events on the platform.
It's a big move that will affect everyone who uses Discord, which has more than 200 million monthly active users, according to the company. Discord will begin rolling out the changes in early March. The Teen age setting will not only affect access to some servers but will also route direct message requests to a new inbox, add warnings to friend alerts and blur content that has been filtered as sensitive.
Discord is just the latest company to add age verification to its platform. Over the last year, YouTube, Roblox, ChatGPT and others have added technology to verify or estimate a person's age to protect younger users from adult content or unwanted contact. Online platforms have come under fire for their effects on children, with some countries banning young people from social media platforms entirely.
In the case of Discord, the company said it will offer more than one option for age verification: either submitting ID to a verification partner or using a facial age-estimation tool. For some, that may not be explicitly required.
"Discord will implement its age inference model, a new system that runs in the background to help determine whether an account belongs to an adult, without always requiring users to verify their age," the company said. "Some users may be asked to use multiple methods if more information is needed to assign an age group."
In addition to the service changes, Discord said it's launching a Teen Council, which will consist of about a dozen teenagers who will help advise the company on "what teens need, how they build meaningful connections, and what makes them feel safe and supported online." Teens aged 13 to 17 can apply for the Teen Council until May 1.
Discord had already been asking people to verify their age to access age-restricted servers. Last year, a third-party vendor was hacked in an incident that exposed IDs for 70,000 who'd been age-verified.