this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
1042 points (98.8% liked)

Technology

81026 readers
7573 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] dev_null@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, except it's not like you get to choose. If you are on the Discord server for rock climbing in your country, you can leave the community, but you don't have "other options".

It's not like the question is "what platform do I want to use for X?". The question is "The X community uses Discord, do I want to be in it or not?" And of course you can choose to not join, but you don't have an option to choose another app.

[–] Baaron87@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I definitely get what you’re saying on that. Leaving behind communities that you’re a part of, potentially for years or longer, is not appealing.

The sad reality is that is where each individual person will have to weigh their options and beliefs.

For me personally, I’m already down to just a few personal communities on Discord and for the one that I run, I will be migrating to either something like Stoat, Matrix or even a good old fashioned web forum. This all stems from not trusting Discord with my personal information, which works for me. Obviously not a one size fits all situation.

It would be nice to see Discord realize that they’re making a huge mistake and backtrack the decision, but I don’t see that happening.

Perhaps this will lead to communities migrating to web forums down the road? Only time will tell.