Discord, a communication platform used by students attending Delta College for clubs and for linking with others in classes, as well as for connecting with friends off campus, recently came under scrutiny as it attempted to age-gate features of the app.
Users under the age of 13 aren’t allowed to make a discord account. Despite this, on Feb.9, Discord announced a new update called “Teen by default,” where Discord accounts would be considered underage upon creation, denying access to features such as un-blurring “spoilered” images, or adding warnings to friend requests from users you don’t know.
The only way to remove this restriction would be to upload a photo identification (ID) or face scan to Discord, verifying the account as 18+. Considering the state of ICE, photo ID’s linked to Discord accounts could put communities at risk, should Discord suffer a breach.
“I only use it for classwork, mostly. Study sessions…” said student Jacob Arriola, who noted that Discord had seen a data breach when asked about his opinion on the ID policy. “Didn’t they have a data breach recently? Doesn’t sound like a very safe option, if its your face or ID that makes it a bigger target.”
Discord has previously failed to maintain the privacy of ID verified users before, with a leak of over 70,000 photo ID’s in October 2025. This time, Discord said the verification would never leave your phone, and that any pictures would be deleted immediately. Additionally, Discord said that a majority of users wouldn’t need to submit an ID as they don’t use the age-gated features.
During its test in the United Kingdom on Feb. 20, Persona, the age verification service that Discord was partnering with, was “hacked” through an open API channel, showing that Persona was gathering the information and sending it to a U.S. government channel intended to check the photos and ID’s against watchlists, as well as leaving the information exposed.
“I’ve heard about it, it sucks, privacy is a thing. I haven’t done a lot to make myself more private, but like, I do like my privacy,” said Ramon Ochoa, a student who uses Discord regularly to talk to friends.
Since this incident, Discord suspended the operation and dissolved its partnership with Persona due to the breach in privacy, declaring some changes would be made and some “clarifications” added to their operation statement. Discord said it expects to resume this operation in the month of June, the details of which aren’t clear.
“many of you are worried that this is just another big tech company finding new ways to collect your personal data. That we’re creating a problem to justify invasive solutions. I get that skepticism. It’s earned, not just toward us, but toward the entire tech industry. But that’s not what we’re doing,” wrote Stanislav Vishnevskiy, one of Discord’s founders in reference to the changes.
