Discord age verification

Rock Paper Shotgun reports Discord roll out global age verification system, including an “age inference” model that runs in the background:

“Discord users can choose to use facial age estimation or submit a form of identification to its vendor partners, with more options coming in the future. Additionally, Discord will implement its age inference model, a new system that runs in the background to help determine whether an account belongs to an adult, without always requiring users to verify their age. Some users may be asked to use multiple methods if more information is needed to assign an age group.”

None of the this can go wrong. #sarcasm. These third-parties are probably very trustable. #scarcasm. In October 2025 BBC reported that ID photos of 70,000 users may have been leaked, Discord says (they did, and it was a third-party vendor). I wrote about this previously And they got away with it.

And then using “AI” to infer the age? A magic 8-ball would probably be more reliable, and wasting less energy. I’m not gonna say they got conned for believing the system can work, as my cynical side actually think they just pretend to care, so it doesn’t matter whether it works or not.

I think the only step forward is to say no. Your country enacted some stupid laws? Fight it. Age verification is never about protecting children, it’s always about control (censorshop). It always disfavour minorities and vulnerable people, always serve maligned interest. And legislative frameworks around privacy, if they have any power rarely have any consequence, making protecting the privacy more a disinsentive than anything else as the greed of the C-suite is always about saving cost.

And to all these projects that have been misusing Discord as their documentation and communication channel? Good luck.