Discord safety for parents: the complete guide

Discord started as a chat app for gamers and is now used by teens for all kinds of communities: games, school clubs, fandoms, study groups and friend groups. Many games, Roblox and Minecraft servers and creators have their own Discord servers.

How Discord works

• Servers: community spaces, public or invite-only, with many channels
• Channels: text, voice or video rooms within a server, each on a topic
• Direct messages (DMs): private chats between users, or small group DMs
• Voice and video calls, and screen sharing
• Roles and moderators: server owners set rules and appoint moderators

The age rule

Discord's minimum age is 13. Discord has been adding age checks in some countries, and treats teen accounts with stricter defaults. As with other apps, protections depend on accurate age.

The risks

Strangers in DMs

Anyone in a shared server may be able to message your teen, depending on settings. Offenders join servers popular with young people and then move to DMs. See online grooming warning signs.

Unmoderated or harmful servers

Servers are run by users. Many are well moderated; some contain adult content, hate, self-harm communities or extreme views. See Discord servers: what parents should know.

Explicit content

Adult content exists on Discord in age-restricted channels and servers, and can be shared in DMs.

Moved from games

Children who meet people in Roblox, Minecraft or other games are often asked to "add me on Discord". This is a common step in grooming.

Voice chat with strangers

Voice channels can expose teens to adults and harsh language.

Settings to set

See Discord Family Center and safety settings for step-by-step instructions. The key ones:

• Sensitive media filter: blur or block explicit images, from everyone
• DMs from server members: off by default for new servers
• Message requests for people they don't know
• Friend requests: limit to friends of friends or server members
• Family Center: connect your account to see activity overviews

Talk about

• "Which servers are you in? What are they about?"
• "Who do you talk to in DMs? Do you know them in real life?"
• "If anyone asks you to keep secrets, send photos or meet, tell me."
• "You can always leave a server or block someone."

Under 13s

Discord isn't designed for under-13s. If a younger child wants to join because of a game, look for alternatives, or keep them out of Discord until they're older.