Discord will start to require age verification globally from all users who wish to access adult content in a controversial move from the online forum.

While UK users are already required to provide age verification to access adult content on Discord in the form of face scans or uploading a form of ID, Discord is moving to take the rules global.

The platform will make “teen-by-default” settings global, meaning that users must prove with facial recognition or ID uploads that they are over 18 to access certain content and services.

Otherwise, users will be able to use Discord as if they are underage, which would prohibit them from seeing direct messages from people they don’t know, view adult content, or unblur sensitive material.

“Nowhere is our safety work more important than when it comes to teen users,” said Discord policy head Savannah Badalich.

“Rolling out teen-by-default settings globally builds on Discord’s existing safety architecture, giving teens strong protections while allowing verified adults flexibility.”

The move may come as the UK laments the many loopholes in its Online Safety Act’s age requirements, which can be avoided by people who download VPNs and access websites seemingly from countries with less strict regulations to access adult content.

The new rule also faces controversy when it comes to security and privacy – Discord previously admitted that around 70,000 user photo IDs were potentially leaked because a third-party firm used for age verification had been hacked.

The security breach raised alarm bells from privacy experts who had long questioned how age verification methods would keep people’s data secure.

Now, Discord has said that images used to verify user age would be deleted after verification is complete, and would not be stored by them or a third-party. It has also cut ties with the third-party service it used, which suffered the data breach in October last year.

AI will be employed to verifiy user age, through photo ID or through an uploaded video. However, users may have to upload many different forms of ID if the system struggles to assign them an appropriate age category, and users that are incorrectly assigned an age will have to go through an appeals process with Discord.

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The idea of “teen-by-default” restrictions and the uploading of personal information has riled up the already sceptical Discord user base.

The platform has around 200 million monthly users, some of which are expressing their disdain for the new requirements on Reddit.

Many are calling out Discord’s recent ID breach fiasco, while one user went so far as to say on Reddit “This is how Discord dies.”

Even if Discord explains the difference in its security measures to mitigate the chances of another data leak, this may not be enough to persuade users to trust the platform.

As online safety measures continue to require more personal information from users, the public is continually questioning where this data is ending up, if it is being sold, and how this data is being kept secure.

While age verification across social media platforms may be becoming the new norm, continuous questioning and loophole-finding by the public means that online safety measures have yet to strike a balance with public trust and privacy concerns.