Age-appropriate Discord settings for UK 13-year-olds, including Family Centre, no friends-of-friends, scanning all DMs, restricted servers and 2FA.
Discord is rated 13+ and is widely used by young teens for gaming and homework groups. For a 13-year-old, the safe shape is small: only friends they know in person, only servers they can explain, all DMs scanned, and Family Centre linked.
Go through these settings together and revisit them once a term.
User Settings → My Account → Edit profile → Date of Birth. Tip: Under-18 protections only apply if Discord knows the user is under 18.
User Settings → Family Centre → Invite parent's account. Tip: Set up before the child has built a long friend list and server collection.
User Settings → Privacy & Safety → Safe Direct Messaging → Keep me safe.
User Settings → Friends Privacy → only Everyone or only specific people, depending on need. Tip: For a 13-year-old, we recommend Friends of Friends and Server members both Off.
User Settings → Privacy & Safety → Allow direct messages from server members → Off.
Walk through every server in their sidebar. Leave any they cannot describe in their own words. Tip: Pay special attention to large NSFW-adjacent or 18+ gaming servers.
Tell them: if someone they have only met on Discord asks them to move to WhatsApp, Telegram or Snap, they tell you immediately, no consequences.
Red flags to watch for
This is practical educational content to support families. For case-specific concerns about a child's safety, contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 or your local safeguarding team.