Discord dropped some pretty big news on Monday, 9 February, announcing that they are rolling out age verification across the globe starting next month.
The gist of it is that every user is being moved into a teen-appropriate experience by default. If you want to keep things as they are, you will have to prove you are actually an adult, otherwise you will find quite a few features and settings locked away.
To get the full run of the service, including access to age-restricted channels and servers, you are going to need that adult status confirmed. It is not just about content either; you won’t be able to unblur sensitive images or even speak on a Stage unless the system knows your age. They are also making things a bit stricter with messaging, routing notes from strangers to a separate inbox by default unless you are a verified adult and choose to change it.
As for how you actually verify, Discord is giving users a couple of options for now: a video selfie for facial estimation or uploading a government ID to one of their vendor partners. They have promised that more methods are on the way, though some users might be asked to do both if the system needs a bit of extra info to be sure. On the privacy front, the company claims video selfies never leave your device and IDs are deleted almost immediately after the check is sorted.
That said, this move is bound to raise a few eyebrows. It was only last October that Discord disclosed that about 70,000 users had their sensitive data exposed after a third-party vendor was breached. Considering that leak included government ID photos, some people might be a bit hesitant to hand over their personal details again, regardless of the new safety measures being put in place.