Discord was previously an ad-free platform. However, in March 2024, Discord began including advertisements focused on those who play games within the platform. Read more about their advertising policy.

Users can opt out of ads within user settings. Select "Privacy & Safety" and toggle off the option for “In-game rewards (aka Quests)."

Users need to be 13 years or older. 

Age VerificationAge VerificationA process to confirm that users are the right age. Confirmation can be through physical identifiers (like an ID) and/or other verified sources of identification to establish the user’s age.: To ensure that users meet the minimum age requirement, Discord asks users to confirm their date of birth by submitting an official ID document to create an account. Learn more about international age variances here.  

Discord’s sensitive content filters are part of their Teen Safety Assist initiative, a series of features that identify possible situations of unwanted behaviors and offers actions or support for teens. These filters are default-enabled for teens globally and available for adults to turn on in Privacy & Safety settings. Sensitive content includes images that are sexually explicit or suggestive and language that is offensive or considered hate speech. 

Teen Safety Assist includes: 

• Sensitive content filters - For teens, Discord will automatically blur media that may be sensitive in direct messages (DMs)direct messages (DMs)A private message sent directly to a user and not posted publicly. Often called a DM for short. and group direct messages (GDMs)group direct messages (GDMs)A private message chain with a group of friends or followers. with friends, as well as in servers. The blur creates an extra step to encourage teens to use caution when viewing the media. 
• Safety alerts on senders - When a teen receives a DM from a user for the first time, Discord will detect if a safety alert should be sent to the teen. This is determined based on the content of the message and if the sender has been reported previously. The safety alert will encourage the recipient to double check if they want to reply and will provide links to block the user or view more safety tips.

Discord believes that users should be able to tailor their Discord experience to their privacy preferences. They offer several ways for users to customize their experience:  

• Limiting Discord’s ability to use your data to improve their services – Discord offers certain settings that allow users to limit the information collected to help the platform understand how users use the services, what features or products users may want, or otherwise help improve the business. Users can turn off this setting and Discord will stop collecting and using certain event and log information as described in these settings. 
• Limiting Discord’s ability to personalize the Discord experience for users – Discord offers certain settings that control whether and how users may personalize Discord, such as offering users relevant recommendations for in-app content and features. Users can disable this setting and Discord will stop collecting and using certain event and log information as described in these settings. 

Discord allows users curate their online experience. Users have choice and control about who they communicate with and how.

This includes which servers to join, which friend requests to accept, and how to engage with others on Discord. Users can also take several other actions to customize their experience, including:

• Blocking – Blocking someone on Discord prevents them from sending your teen direct messages (DMs)direct messages (DMs)A private message sent directly to a user and not posted publicly. Often called a DM for short.. If your teen is in a server with someone they’ve blocked, they will no longer see that person’s messages in the server. 
• Message requests – If someone your teen is not friends with sends them a DM and your teen has  message requests enabled for that server, Discord will filter that DM into a separate “Message Requests” folder. Your teen will need to approve the message request before being able to chat directly with the message requester. Safety alerts will be added if Discord detects an issue with the sender or the content (see above under Age Content Filters). 

Users can adjust friend request privileges and allow friends requests to include “everyone”, “friends of friends”, or “server members.”

See below under “Parent/Caregiver Supervision Options” to read how parents/caregivers are informed of new friends when using the Family Center.

Discord does not offer nighttime settings.

Discord users can edit/customize the notification settings for each channel individually or set up a blanket mute to auto-mute each channel within the server.

To edit settings on a server, press on the server name in upper left corner and select "notification settings." The menu that drops down will give the user options to edit notifications ("all messages," "only @ messages," and/or "nothing"). 

Instead of muting each channel individually (as explained above), users can use a blanket mute over all channels. 

Discord does not offer nudges.

Discord Family Center is a tool to help parents and caregivers better understand how their teens use Discord, get insights into the communities they are a part of, and develop collaborative approaches to build positive online behaviors. Access Family Center by heading to “User Settings” in Discord.  Both parents/caregivers and the teen must voluntarily opt into connecting to Family Center. 

With Family Center, you’ll be able to see: 

• Recently added friends, including their display names and avatars
• Which users a teen has messaged or called in direct or group messages, including their display names, avatars, and the times of the last message or call
• Servers joined or participated in, including server names, server icons, and server member counts
• Parents and caregivers will also receive weekly updates containing a high level summary of their teen’s activity via email.

View details on how to set up Family Center. 

Discord does not offer time limits for users. 

However, moderators and admins within Discord servers can enforce “Time Outs” for users who act inappropriately. This is often used for TrollsTrollsThe act of deliberately causing annoyance and discomfort online, typically by posting inflammatory or offensive comments. This term can describe the action or describe the group who engages in this behavior: “Trolls.”. Users under a time out will not be able to interact with other users for the time limit, which varies from 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day or 1 week.

• Discord's Blocking and Privacy Settings
• How to Control Your Privacy on Discord
• Discord's Message Requests