Important: Starting in March, we’ll be expanding our teen-by-default experience and bringing age assurance to users globally as part of our broader effort to support age-appropriate experiences on Discord.

To learn more about these upcoming changes, visit our full blog post here.

Age assurance helps Discord provide you with an age-appropriate experience, such as managing default settings and controlling what sensitive content you see on our platform(more on when age assurance is required below). This is a one-time process, so once we have your verified age group, you don’t need to verify again.

Important:
UK Online Safety Act Implementation and updated Australian User Experience. The age assurance features described in this article are fully available to users in the United Kingdom and Australia only. They apply to all new and existing UK and Australian accounts.

To learn more about changes for UK users due to the UK Online Safety Act requirements, please visit our detailed Help Center article.

To learn more about changes for Australian users, please visit our Safety Center article.

What this article covers:

Important: If you're located in the UK, you may be part of an experiment where your information will be processed by an age-assurance vendor, Persona. The information you submit will be temporarily stored for up to 7 days, then deleted. For ID document verification, all details are blurred except your photo and date of birth, so only what's truly needed for age verification is used.

Note: Some users in regions outside the UK and Australia may see age-assurance prompts when accessing certain features or settings as part of ongoing experiments.

How to Complete Age Assurance

Discord and k-ID do not permanently store personal identity documents or your video selfies. Images of your identity documents and ID match selfies are deleted directly after your age group is confirmed, and the video selfie used for facial age estimation never leaves your device.

The age assurance process is the same, regardless of how it's triggered:

Step 1: Start Verification

You'll see a prompt asking you to verify your age if you haven't done so already.

Example of Verify age group window

Step 2: Choose Your Verification Method

A "We need to verify your age" window will appear with two options:

Option 1: Face Scan

Select Take a selfie on the verification page.
Allow access to your camera when prompted.
Follow the on-screen instructions to take a video selfie
Press Done to submit.

Option 2: Scan ID

Select Use your ID on the verification page.
Use your mobile device to scan the QR code.
Take a clear photo of your government-issued ID following the guidelines on screen:
- Make sure you are in a well-lit area
- Place ID on flat dark surface
- Make sure all corners of the ID are visible
Take a selfie to match your ID document by following the guidelines on screen:
- Make sure you are in a well-lit area
- Remove any headwear
- Keep your glasses on
Press Done to submit.

Take a selfie and Use your ID options in the Age Assurance window

Step 3: Confirmation

After verification, you'll receive system messages about the verification process and a Direct Message from Discord's official profile confirming your verified age group.

Example of direct message (DM) notification from Discord confirming your age verification status

Note: You might need to verify using both methods if Discord isn’t fully confident in the facial age estimation alone.

If Age Assurance Fails

If the age assurance fails, you can retry through the ID scan option at any time.

If you are verified as under the minimum required age in your country, your account will be banned. If this is incorrect and you want to appeal, please follow instructions here to go through the ID scan option to verify your date of birth.

Privacy-Forward Age Assurance Process

Age assurance verification is the backbone of this experience for all new and existing UK and Australian users.

Privacy-protecting process. Discord and k-ID do not permanently store personal identity documents or your video selfies. Images of your identity documents and ID match selfies are deleted directly after your age group is confirmed, and the video selfie used for facial age estimation never leaves your device.
Verify once. After completing the age assurance process, your Discord experience is tailored to your verified age group, and you won't be prompted again.
You can always re-verify. If you believe you’ve been incorrectly verified into the teen age group, you can attempt to re-verify.
Visible only to you. Other users can’t see your verification status or verified age group. That information is private to you.

How to See Your Verified Age Group

If you’ve already completed age assurance, you can go to your My Account page in your User Settings to see your verified age group. If you believe you’ve been incorrectly verified into the teen age group, you can choose to re-verify in this settings page.

If you haven’t completed age assurance, you will see Unverified under Age Group. You can then complete the age assurance process by pressing the Verify button.

Age Group field in Account Settings

Frequently Asked Questions

In this FAQ section, we’ll cover:

Getting Started with Age Assurance
Content Filtering and Age Assurance
Privacy and Data Security
Troubleshooting and Support

Getting Started with Age Assurance

Q: When do I need to verify my age on Discord?

A: If you have not verified your age group yet, you may be asked to do so the first time you encounter any of these situations:

1. When attempting to unblur sensitive content blocked by our Sensitive Media Filter.

2. When attempting to change the default settings for the Sensitive Media Filter.

3. When attempting to change your Message Request settings.

4. When trying to access an age-restricted (18+) channel.

Note for UK and Australian users:
All new and existing UK and Australian accounts will experience new default settings designed to create a more age-appropriate experience by default. That means all UK and Australian users will be asked to verify their age when they encounter these above situations.

Q: How many times will I need to verify my age?

A: Age assurance is a one-time process. Once your age group is confirmed, you won't need to verify again when accessing age-restricted features.

Content Filtering and Age Assurance

Q: What happens when I encounter sensitive content?

A: If you come across blurred content that was flagged by our sensitive media filter, you will need to age-verify as an adult before viewing and unblurring it.

Q: Do I need to verify my age multiple times to turn off the Sensitive Media Filter?

A: No. Age assurance is a one-time process. Once your age group is confirmed, you won't need to verify again when you attempt to access an age-restricted feature. However, if you believe your age group is incorrectly verified, you may retry the age assurance process again.

Q: Do I need to verify my age to change content filter settings?

A: Yes. Sensitive content filter settings are set by default to:

Direct Messages From Friends: Blur
Direct Messages from Others: Block
Direct Messages in Server Channels: Blur

Changing any of these to “Show” will require age assurance.

Q: Do I need to verify my age to adjust Message Request settings?

A: Yes. Attempting to turn off Message Requests may trigger age assurance.

Q: Is age assurance required for age-restricted (18+) channels?

A: Yes. Age assurance is required before entering channels marked as age-restricted.

Privacy and Data Security

Q: Is my data stored when I use Face Scan or Scan ID verification?

A: Discord and k-ID do not permanently store personal identity documents or your video selfies. The image of your identity document and the ID face match selfie are deleted directly after your age group is confirmed, and the video selfie used for facial age estimation never leaves your device.

Troubleshooting and Support

Q: What if my age group is incorrect?

A: If you believe you were incorrectly verified into the teen age group, you may retry the age assurance process.

Q: What happens if my age group is verified incorrectly or it fails to verify?

A: If you believe you were incorrectly verified into the teen age group, you may retry verification through your chat with Discord system messages where you can select Retry to enter the verification flow again. You can also go to your User Settings > My Account and press Retry located to the right of the Age Group field.

If you were banned after being incorrectly verified as under the minimum age requirement and want to appeal, please follow instructions here to use the ID scan option to verify your date of birth.

Q: How long does the age assurance process take?

A: The age assurance process typically takes just a few minutes. You'll receive notifications about the status and a DM from Discord's official profile once completed.

Example of DM notification from Discord confirming your age assurance status

Q: What happens if I’m banned after age assurance?

A: Your account may be banned if your age is below the minimum requirement. If you were banned due to being incorrectly verified as under the minimum age requirement and want to appeal, please follow instructions here to use the ID scan option to verify your date of birth.