Discord

What is Discord?

Discord is a communication platform built around servers — communities where people talk via text, voice and video. It is made by Discord Inc. and is primarily designed for gaming communities, but it is also used by interest groups ranging from school projects to art communities. Users can join public and private servers, send direct messages, share their screen and use bots (automated tools). Discord offers Family Center, which lets a parent or guardian connect to their teen’s account and see recently added friends, servers joined, and who they message or call — without reading message content.

Age rating: 13+ (Discord requires a date of birth at signup and may use additional verification steps, but most servers have no age check of their own).

Why do kids like it?

• Gaming communities. Discord is the go-to app for talking with friends while playing games. Real-time voice chat makes it indispensable for many young gamers.
• Friend groups. Many children create private servers for their friend group — like a digital clubhouse.
• Interest-based communities. Servers exist for almost everything — Minecraft, anime, music, coding, art. Children find like-minded people.
• Screen sharing and streaming. Teens hop into voice channels and share their screen with friends — watching each other play games, collaborating on homework, or streaming videos together in real time.
• Free. Discord costs nothing to use. That makes the barrier to entry low.

What are the real risks?

• Public servers. Open servers can contain communities, language or content not intended for children, and most servers have no age check of their own.
• Contact from strangers. Shared servers can lead to direct messages, friend requests or attempts to move conversations into private spaces.
• Voice, video and screen sharing. Calls and screen sharing are not moderated in the same way as text, and can show or reveal information the child did not intend to share.
• Phishing and scams. Bots and users can send links that try to capture login details, accounts or personal information.

Settings to check

1. Connect Family Center: Settings → Family Center → connect your account to your teen’s. View recently added friends, servers joined, and who they message or call. Guardian-managed settings let you directly control who can DM your teen and how sensitive content is filtered — from your own account. Weekly email summaries are also available.
2. Turn off server DMs: Settings → Privacy & Safety → Server Privacy Defaults → turn off “Allow direct messages from server members”. When prompted, apply to all existing servers.
3. Review sensitive content filters: Settings → Content & Social → review the filters for DMs from friends and non-friends. For teens, Discord blocks sensitive media from non-friends and blurs it from friends by default.
4. Limit friend requests: Settings → Friend Requests → limit who can send friend requests (e.g. “Friends of Friends” only).
5. Enable two-factor authentication: Settings → My Account → enable two-factor authentication (2FA) using an authenticator app.
6. Enable spam filter: Settings → Privacy & Safety → enable “Filter direct messages from non-friends” if it is not already on.

How to talk about it

“What servers are you in on Discord, and what do you like about them?”

“What do you do if someone you don’t know sends a DM or wants to move the conversation?”

“What’s it like joining voice or video calls with people you haven’t met in person?”

Last reviewed: July 2026