Complaints about Nitro, Discord's subscription, and the venture capital-backed pressure to grow that guides the company's product decisions have existed for years. While those might play a role, the current exodus from Discord seems like it can rest squarely at the feet of the company's age-verification policies. Discord announced a new collection of teen safety features in February 2026 to follow the United Kingdom's Online Safety Act, and a growing number of laws that require platforms to use age verification to prevent children from accessing adult content. Discord's so-called "Teen Default
Open-source Discord alternatives: What Stoat and Element actually fix - EngadgetWith an open-source chat platform, security is still an issue, but a mass age-verification system isn't a concern when you're just hosting a server for you and your friends. Not every option offers the same familiar interface as Discord, but you can get core features like text chat and voice and video calls from most open-source chat apps. If you actually want to easily self-host a server, the options get more limited. Apps like Stoat, Element, Fluxxer and Cinny offer Discord or Slack-like experiences that you can run on your own hardware, either using a bespoke system or the open-source Matri
Open-source Discord alternatives: What Stoat and Element actually fix - Engadget… The Age Signals tool allows parents to share their own or their child's age with devs as a range. This as a more private option than requiring age be shared as a specific number or birthdate while still helping devs meet a growing number of age verification requirements. …
… There were issues with the rollout , with kids spoofing its age check system, but Roblox was adamant that its technology works. After that initial release, Roblox started requiring age verification in the US to be able to use the in-game chat. …
… Apple Reference Image appears to be a tool that will verify that a photo was taken with an iPhone camera. To confirm that a photo is an iPhone capture, select sensor information and metadata for an image can be sent to Private Cloud Compute for verification. …
… Discord ultimately decided to postpone its rollout to the second half of 2026 so it could adjust its approach, including adding more age-verification options. …
… 1:26 PM EDT Karissa Bell Declared age range has been a thing for awhile, but I expect it will become even more important as we see more and more age verification laws come online. 1:26 PM EDT Cherlynn Low Developers could use a child's age range to tailor their experiences accordingly, for instance. …