Age Verification Discord Uses: Safety
When Discord asks you for a video selfie, it maps out the shape of your face. You blink, you turn your head, and you get a green check mark. Discord says it only keeps its guess of how old you are. If Discord can't tell your age from your face, it asks you for your ID instead. Discord sends that ID to a company you've never even dealt with. By the end of this, you'll know what you should never hand over, for you or for your child. And you'll know who can still reach your child.
You're done with the whole selfie in about 10 seconds. Nobody checks your ID, and nobody calls the DMV.
First, your phone's camera records a short video of you moving. Next, Discord marks points all across your face. Then Discord compares its guess against an age limit.
So who is Discord really trying to stop with that face scan? NBC News found grooming cases on Discord going back to 2017.
Your selfie gives Discord a guess at your age, but it doesn't tell them who you are. If your face scan fails, Discord sends your ID to a company outside Discord. By the end, you'll know what to say no to.
A 15-year-old boy in Texas died by suicide.
Texas's attorney general says a predator groomed him on Discord. The attorney general says the man pressured him into sending explicit pictures. Texas blames Discord for weak age checks and wide-open settings.
Privacy researchers say these face scans often get people's ages wrong. They warn the data from your face can go unprotected.
Discord guesses your age from the texture of your skin. It also looks at the bones around your eyes and your jaw. The people who built it trained it on millions of faces.
These face scans are less accurate for people 18 to 30 than for older adults. The write-up says predators pretending to be teens are often that age.
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You'd think uploading your ID is the safe backup plan. But uploaded IDs are exactly what's been leaked.
Germany sets a limit on how many mistakes these scans can make. Germany fails any scan that gets more than 1% wrong. A company that gets 2% wrong is making double that many mistakes. That means twice as many children can slip through.
In November 2025, one ID company leaked people's records. The records came from users in 26 countries. Companies like it are supposed to delete your ID after checking it.
In February 2026, another ID company left its page open for anyone to see. In April, someone broke Europe's age check in under 2 minutes.
That's 3 ID companies that had problems in just 6 months. You can't reset your child's license like a password.
New Jersey says Discord marketed itself as a safe space for teens. New Jersey's attorney general sued over that, its settings and its age check. New Jersey says Discord misled families by calling itself safe.
Discord only asks one question when it scans a face. Is this teen old enough for adult content? Discord never asks whether that teen is really a grown man. So a man who says he's younger walks right in.
Never upload your ID or your child's ID just to get past the face scan. Turn off messages from strangers on your child's account.
Turn off messages from people in the same Discord group, which Discord calls a server. Set friend requests so only friends of friends can send them. Ask your child who messages them on Discord.
Discord only guesses your child's age from their face. But your child's privacy settings don't guess at all.
Say a stranger joins your child's Discord group. Next, he sends your child a private message. If you've turned messages off, your child never gets it. Your child only hears from their friends.
CaraComp wrote this up, and their piece goes deeper. They walk you through the settings that actually matter.
Cara Candelario puts it plainly. You can watch a face scan and think it's thorough. The scan can still miss the one person you needed it to catch.
Check the content filters on your child's account. Take a screenshot of any message from a stranger before you call the police. If your child's struggling, call or text 988, day or night.
In June 2024, Aaron Wehrstein was sentenced to 21 years in prison. He fooled at least 8 boys on Discord, and they were 12 to 17 years old. He pretended to be someone else.
Discord won't catch a grown man pretending to be young. But you can stop him from messaging your child.
Tonight, ask your child one question. Has anyone on Discord asked you for a photo? Tell them they won't get in trouble for answering.
A stranger can message your child tonight. Turn those messages off before you go to bed.
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