Discord sensitive content filters are part of our Teen Safety Assist initiative to help make Discord a safer and more private place for teens to hang out online. These filters are default-enabled for teens globally and available for adults to turn on in Privacy & Safety settings.

What this article covers:

• How teens experience filters
• How adults experience filters
• Future updates
• Frequently Asked Questions

How teens experience filters

Through sensitive content filters, Discord detects if media posted on our platform may be sensitive. When these new filters are set to blur, they apply to all historic and new media.

1. Discord will blur media that may be sensitive in direct messages (DMs), group direct messages (GDMs), and servers for teens. The blur protects teens from sensitive media, and requires an extra step before media is displayed. 

2. Teens can press on the eye icon to unblur the media. Users can always re-blur the unblurred media again if desired by pressing on the eye icon again. 

• For multiple images sent in one message from a user, the blurring will only be applied to the select images that are detected as potentially sensitive. 

3. All users with the filter enabled can press on Why we hide some media below the media. Selecting this will show more detail on why we hide some media. 

• If users press on Learn More they will be brought to this article for details.
• Users can press on Let us know if the media we blurred should not be considered as sensitive. Pressing this will forward that media to our team in order to help us improve our sensitive media detection.  

4. Another way to let us know if a media is not sensitive is to right-click or long press the media and find the option to Mark as Not Sensitive. By selecting this, users will see the media again with the ability to confirm Mark as not sensitive. This will also forward the media to Discord to help improve our sensitive media detection. 

5. In Privacy & Safety settings, teens will be able to change their sensitive media preferences. There is an option to either blur or block sensitive media unique to DMs from friends and unique to DMs from others. 

• For DMs from friends, the default selection will be set to blur sensitive media for teens. This selection will create the sensitive media experience shown above. If the block selection is made, this media will be blocked at upload and not shown at all.
• For DMs from non-friends, the default selection will be set to block sensitive media for teens. This means the media will blocked at upload and not shown at all. 

Note: For teens, media that may be sensitive will be blurred in servers. Safety settings in servers, such as media blocking, are controlled by server owners.

How adults experience filters

All media from friends will be shown by default to adult users on Discord. 

1. Adults can opt into sensitive content filters by changing their sensitive media preferences in Privacy & Safety settings. There are options to either show, blur, or block sensitive media unique to DMs from friends and unique to DMs from others. 

• The default selection will be to show sensitive media for adults in DMs from friends, and to block sensitive media for adults in DMs from non-friends. 
• If the blur selection is made, all sensitive media will be blurred by default. 
• If the block selection is made, sensitive media will be blocked from being uploaded in DMs and GDMs.

2. If the blur selection is made, sensitive media in the corresponding space (DMs with friends, DMs with non-friends, or servers) will be blurred by default. 

3. Adults can press on the eye icon to unblur the media. Users can always re-blur the unblurred media again if desired. 

• For multiple images sent in one message from a user, the blurring will only be applied to the select images that are detected as potentially sensitive.

4. All users with the filter enabled can press on Why we hide some media below the media. Pressing this will show more detail on why we hide some media. 

• Adults will have the option to go to settings to see their sensitive media preferences. 
• Users can press on let us know if the media we blurred should not be considered as sensitive. Pressing this will forward that media to our team in order to help us improve our sensitive media detection.

5. Another way to let us know if a media is not sensitive is to right-click or long press the media and find the option to Mark as Not Sensitive. By selecting this, users will see the media again with the ability to confirm Mark as not sensitive. This will also forward the media to Discord to help improve our sensitive media detection. 

Once these sensitive media preferences are changed to show or blur, all historic and new media will follow either selection. 

Future updates

Discord plans to continue updating sensitive content filters for teens and adults to include protection against other types of sensitive media detected on the platform. Check our Safety News Hub for the latest information. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can teens opt out of the blurring or blocking? 

A: No, for teen safety we do not currently allow them to change these settings to show. Teens can only choose from blur or block for these filters.

Q: How does Discord detect potentially sensitive media? 

A: When a user has this feature on, messages containing image-based media will be processed by our automated detection system to see if it contains potentially sensitive media.

At times, our detection may misunderstand or miss when image-based content contains nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material. In these instances, users can report the content to us.

This feature does not report any message content or other information to Discord for enforcement purposes.