Parent Hub | Discord Safety

How Your Teen Uses Discord

Discord is about hanging out with friends in real time. It's a place where people can be themselves and spend time with others who share their interests and hobbies. Keep reading to learn how your teen can use Discord to talk and hang out with their communities and friends.

Chatting with Friends

Teens use Discord to talk about all sorts of things, ranging from their favorite artists and sports teams to homework and more. It's a home for communities of any size, but it's most widely used by small and active groups of people. These small groups include group chats or other groups, called servers, made by interest-based communities or friend groups. Discord servers are organized into topic-based channels where you can collaborate, share, and just talk about your day without clogging up a group chat. The vast majority of servers are small and invitation-only, so your teen can choose to be a part of servers they want to be in, and if your teen is a server owner, they control who gets to be part of their community.

Hopping into Channels

Communication on Discord isn't just about text! Discord servers are organized into text and voice channels, which are usually dedicated to specific topics. In text channels, users can post messages, upload files, and share images for others to see at any time. Teens hop into a voice channel and connect through a voice or video call in real time, and can share their screen with their friends.

Exploring Interest-based Communities

From gaming, to music, to learning, Discord is the home for people wanting to create a community around a special interest or a hobby. Your teen may also join public communities that are built around shared interests from language learning, to origami, to their favorite TV shows, to houseplants.

More Resources for Parents and Educators

Policy

Safer Internet Day 2023

Safety

Discord's commitment to a safe and trusted experience

Safety

Helping your teen stay safe on Discord

Policy

Answering parents' and educators' top questions

Safety

Talking about online safety with your teen

Safety

If your teen encounters an issue

Safety

What is Discord?

Safety

Talking about online safety with your teen

Safety

Discord's commitment to a safe and trusted experience

Safer Internet Day 2023

Discord's commitment to a safe and trusted experience

Helping your teen stay safe on Discord

Answering parents' and educators' top questions

Talking about online safety with your teen

If your teen encounters an issue

What is Discord?

Our Approach to Content Moderation

We currently employ three levers to moderate user content on Discord, while mindful of user privacy.

Reporting on Discord

Learn how to report content and other users on Discord and help support your teen in feeling confident and comfortable when reporting issues themselves.

Identifying the Issues

It's important to have a conversation about what is and isn't considered proper online behavior.. For example, only accept friend requests from people you know. If something doesn’t seem right, tell a trusted adult. Behavior that’s not okay at school is also not okay online. However, if something does come up, please know that you and your teen can easily report it to Discord for our Safety team to investigate and take appropriate action.

Submitting a Report

If your teen encounters an issue on Discord, here's how they can report it to us. First, select the message they wish to report. If they're on mobile, hold down on the Message, and on desktop, "right click." Then, select "Report Message."

For parents, you too can submit a report by following the instructions in this article.

Describe the Issue

Once they've hit the "Report Message" button, they can choose which category of violation they're seeing. More details can be provided in the next screen, to further allow them to specify what it is they're encountering.

Our Safety team takes action when we become aware of content that violates our Community Guidelines and policies, including disabling accounts, removing servers, and engaging with authorities as appropriate.

Get Help from a Moderator

Discord communities, especially the large and public ones, often have moderators there to help address issues. If the violation happened in a server with a moderator, your teen can also reach out to the server’s moderators, who may be able to respond immediately and help resolve their concerns. In addition, remind your teen that they have the ability to block any users they don’t want to interact with.