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?

• Open access to public servers. Anyone can join public servers, and there is no age verification beyond the initial signup. Children can end up in communities intended for adults without anyone checking.
• DMs from strangers. By default, anyone on a shared server can send direct messages to your child. This is Discord’s own default — it must be turned off manually.
• Explicit content. Some servers contain sexually explicit or violent material. Discord automatically blurs or blocks sensitive images for teen accounts, but text content, links, voice chat and screen shares are not filtered.
• Grooming risk. Adults with bad intentions use large public servers to make initial contact with children, then move the conversation to private DMs where there is no moderation. The pattern is consistent: public server → friend request → private DMs → requests for personal information or images.
• Unmonitored voice and video. Voice calls, video calls and screen sharing are not moderated or filtered. In a private call, anything can be said or shown with no record kept. A child can also be asked to share their screen, potentially revealing personal information visible on their device.
• Phishing and scam bots. Bots and users send links designed to steal login credentials or personal information. “Free Nitro” scams are particularly common — they mimic official Discord messages and lead to fake login pages.
• Server roles and permissions. Children who become moderators in community servers may be given permissions that expose them to reported content, or place them in authority positions they are not ready for.

Settings to check

1. 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. Server DMs: Settings → Privacy & Safety → Server Privacy Defaults → turn off “Allow direct messages from server members”. When prompted, apply to all existing servers.
3. 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. Friend requests: Settings → Friend Requests → limit who can send friend requests (e.g. “Friends of Friends” only).
5. Two-factor authentication: Settings → My Account → enable two-factor authentication (2FA) using an authenticator app.
6. Spam filter: Settings → Privacy & Safety → “Filter direct messages from non-friends” (enabled by default).

How to talk about it

“What servers are you in on Discord? Can you tell me a bit about them?”

“Have you ever received a message from someone you don’t know on there? What did you do?”

“If someone you don’t know tries to move the conversation to DMs or asks for personal information — that’s a warning sign, and you can always tell me.”

“Do you ever join voice or video calls on Discord with people you haven’t met in person? What’s that like?”

Last reviewed: April 2026