Discord now lets parents control who contacts their teens, but messages stay private

"Discord is expanding the safety controls parents and guardians have access to in its Family Center, including increased visibility of their teens' activity, allowing guardians to control sensitive content filtering and data privacy settings, and giving them more control over who can DM their teens. New Social Permissions toggles will allow guardians to choose whether their teens can receive direct messages only from friends or from anyone who's a member of the same servers as them. However, Discord is still promising teens that, "As always, guardians can't see the content of the messages you send.""

"Discord will also be giving teens the option to notify their parents or guardians when they report someone, although the details of the report will remain private, just like their messages. Family Center will also show more data in the activity summary, including total purchases, total call minutes, and top users and servers, all over a seven-day period."

"Family Center is still voluntary for both teens and guardians - teens have to give their parents a QR code to scan to connect the accounts, then approve the connection after scanning. Family Center allows guardians to see an overview of what their teens are up to through the activity summary, but they aren't able to directly control which servers their kids are part of or who they're friends with on Discord."

Discord expanded Family Center safety controls to give guardians greater visibility into teens' activity and more control over sensitive content filtering, data privacy settings, and who can direct-message teens. New Social Permissions let guardians restrict direct messages to friends or to anyone in shared servers, while guardians remain unable to view message content. Teens can optionally notify guardians when they file reports, with report details kept private. Activity summaries will display seven-day totals for purchases, call minutes, and top users and servers, visible to both teens and guardians. Enrollment requires teen consent via QR-code pairing and approval, and guardians cannot directly manage servers or friends. The changes coincide with broader age-gating, prior regional age verification, and increased scrutiny over online harms.

Read at The Verge