this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026

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Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month (www.theverge.com)

submitted 2 days ago by tonytins@pawb.social to c/technology@lemmy.world

456 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Discord announced on Monday that it’s rolling out age verification on its platform globally starting next month, when it will automatically set all users’ accounts to a “teen-appropriate” experience unless they demonstrate that they’re adults.

Users who aren’t verified as adults will not be able to access age-restricted servers and channels, won’t be able to speak in Discord’s livestream-like “stage” channels, and will see content filters for any content Discord detects as graphic or sensitive. They will also get warning prompts for friend requests from potentially unfamiliar users, and DMs from unfamiliar users will be automatically filtered into a separate inbox.

Direct messages and servers that are not age-restricted will continue to function normally, but users won’t be able to send messages or view content in an age-restricted server until they complete the age check process, even if it’s a server they were part of before age verification rolled out. Savannah Badalich, Discord’s global head of product policy, said in an interview with The Verge that those servers will be “obfuscated” with a black screen until the user verifies they’re an adult. Users also won’t be able to join any new age-restricted servers without verifying their age.

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[–] deadymouse@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

[–] Loce@lemmy.world 11 points 22 hours ago

Always hated discord mostly as a technology, now i just hate it as is.

[–] ARANDOMTURKISHGUY@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Fuck discord. From now I am in matrix.

[–] TerdFerguson@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

Ok. Well I will delete my account then.

This kind of enshittification is intolerable. The reason this exists is solely to tie your online behaviour to your real life identity.

“They” want to control people’s conversations in the digital third spaces. And to find ways to punish you for the thoughts they disapprove of. Discord is happy to sell that data to whomever is buying it.

Oh well. More fediverse, please!

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[–] naught101@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

https://taggart-tech.com/discord-alternatives/

[–] uniquethrowagay@feddit.org 95 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (10 children)

The German ~~passport~~ ID card (and I'm sure many others) has a NFC chip in it and you can use it with an open source app to securely prove your identity online. In cases like this, the only information pulled from your ID would be "over 18" or "not over 18".

It's one of the few things my government did right in the digital space. And yet almost nobody in the private sector uses this. I'm tired of being asked to upload a photo of my ID for age verification.

[–] Takios@discuss.tchncs.de 50 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Of course they don't use it. They want your data, not just your age. As long as the government does not make using ID this way for age verification mandatory*, companies will continue to use processes that give them the most data that they can sell.

*: As in not making verification mandatory but if a company wants to do it they must to it this way

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[–] wuffah@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (8 children)

Discord is not needed. Quit. Kill it. Watch them BEG to get us back, then say no.

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[–] HalfSalesman@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago

Yeah, I'm not doing that.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

Month after they'll need a semen sample and hat size.

And people will do it.

[–] hayvan@feddit.nl 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

“For most adults, age verification won’t be required, as Discord’s age inference model uses account information such as account tenure, device and activity data, and aggregated, high-level patterns across Discord communities. Discord does not use private messages or any message content in this process,”

The inference model probably sucks and will fail yo distinguish a lot of users.

[–] TerdFerguson@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Translation: we wont age verify you or collect the biometrics if we already have what we want through other channels (federated SSO, data sharing agreements)

Your facial geometry wont be needed if facebook already has it and your discord identity is linked to that one(through your permission or not)

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

Idk "account tenure" sounds like "if you signed up when we first opened in 2015 we prolly don't need an id"

But what do i know

[–] baitu@jlai.lu 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Each day that pass we get closer from Chinese internet

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[–] termaxima@slrpnk.net 20 points 1 day ago (3 children)

My discord account is ELEVEN YEARS OLD !? Why would I ever need to prove that I am not a teen !? I would have had to create my account when I was 6 years old to still be a teen with this account, which is obviously ridiculous.

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[–] Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fucking seriously? One of the last places I still have a fucking community and now I'm going to get kicked from it cause corporate assholes can't learn to respect fucking privacy?

[–] amos@slrpnk.net 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This should serve as motivation to move away from any and all corporations. Do not lose your community. Find a proper free-libre-open-source alternative and move the community there. Communities are important. Corporations are not.

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[–] GutterRat42@lemmy.world 115 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Discord leaked my email. How do I know it was Discord? Because that email address was specifically for Discord. Anyways, now that email is full of spam. Anyways anyways, no way I am letting them leak my face

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[–] amos@slrpnk.net 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Slightly Off-Topic:

I never liked Discord. First and foremost, nowadays, I cannot log into it when I am using a VPN. And back when I could, it always felt so laggy and clunky.

I think todays society is not used to performant software. Everyone just buys a new computer/smartphone every year or every 2 years or so, so they probably have compute power to run whatsoever. I run old shit. 13 year old desktops or so, with no dedicated graphics card, old smartphones, etc. I need software to be performant.

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