The War on Porn Regular Updates about the Assault on The Adult Industry
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Something quietly fundamental is about to change on one of the internet’s most familiar hangouts. Discord’s senior leadership confirmed this week that age verification will become mandatory for all users starting in March 2026, alongside a shift to what the company calls “teen-by-default” settings across the entire platform.
The expanded safety rollout, according to the company, is meant to create “a safer and more inclusive experience for users over the age of 13.” On paper, it sounds tidy. In practice, it signals a pretty big cultural shift for a platform that’s long felt like the digital equivalent of a messy, unlocked group chat.
“As part of this update, all new and existing users worldwide will have a teen-appropriate experience by default, with updated communication settings, restricted access to age-gated spaces, and content filtering that preserves the privacy and meaningful connections that define Discord,” the company said. It’s a careful balance they’re trying to strike — safety without sanding off the personality that made people show up in the first place.
“Nowhere is our safety work more important than when it comes to teen users, which is why we are announcing these updates in time for Safer Internet Day,” said Savannah Badalich, Discord’s head of product policy, referencing the February 10 awareness initiative. “Rolling out teen-by-default settings globally builds on Discord’s existing safety architecture, giving teens strong protections while allowing verified adults flexibility.”
Badalich added, “We design our products with teen safety principles at the core and will continue working with safety experts, policymakers, and Discord users to support meaningful, long-term wellbeing for teens on the platform.” It’s the kind of statement you’d expect — earnest, forward-looking, and clearly written with regulators peeking over shoulders.
Under the new “teen-by-default” framework, users will have to go through age-verification steps to access channels and servers labeled as “age-restricted.” That includes spaces run by adult content creators, online sex workers, sexually themed communities, sexual animation hubs, and certain fan communities that live closer to the edges of the platform.
There’s also an unspoken tension here that’s hard to ignore. Discord has been down this road before, and not without bruises.
The platform previously experienced a data breach involving one of its age-verification vendors, exposing sensitive verification materials, including government-issued identification. For users who already feel uneasy about handing over personal documents online, that memory hasn’t exactly faded.
That incident stemmed from mistakes by a customer experience vendor, 5CA, which outsources work to customer service agents in countries including the Philippines. Discord’s primary age-verification partner, K-ID, later stated that it had no involvement in the breach tied to its standard verification systems.
So here we are again — a platform promising better protection, safer defaults, and stronger guardrails, while carrying the weight of past missteps. Maybe this time the systems hold. Maybe trust rebuilds. Or maybe the internet does what it always does and asks the same old question, just in a new tone: how much safety is worth how much control?
