Discord rolls out age verification globally: What gets blocked and what doesn't

Discord has begun rolling out its age verification system worldwide, seven months after pausing the initiative amid user backlash over privacy concerns.

This age verification rollout creates three account tiers, i.e., adult (18+), teen (13-17), and unconfirmed. All three have different access levels.

Teen accounts can’t access age-restricted servers or channels, receive direct message requests in their main inbox, or accept friend requests from strangers without warning.

Teen accounts can still: use Discord normally with friends and existing mutual connections, join non-age-restricted servers and communities, send and receive messages within their existing network, and access most standard features and channels.

Any message request from someone who isn’t already a friend goes to a separate “message requests” inbox rather than appearing directly. Teens also receive alerts when accepting friend requests from users with no mutual connections.

Those whose age has not been verified yet will remain in the “unconfirmed” category until Discord gathers enough data to assign a group. These users retain limited access while the platform determines their placement. They can manually verify in settings at any time. Till now, there have been no changes for adult accounts.

Irrespective of these tiers, Discord does not block messages, calls or content from existing friends, access to non-restricted servers, and profile customisation or standard account features for any user.

For clarification, the company states its age estimation model doesn’t examine message content, call data, profile information, or demographic attributes.