How to Monitor Discord: Realities and Options

You can only monitor Discord if you’re a parent using the Family Center or by being a part of the server that you want to monitor. It’s difficult to track one-on-one private chats, even on a teen’s account.

Discord provides an overview of a teen’s activities, and unless you’re using spyware or third-party parental control tools, you won’t see the content of the messages.

Discord is primarily used in small private groups called servers. Only those on the server can see the messages. Thus, the other person cannot tell the type of conversation happening within the chat. Users can distribute all forms of content, including controversial topics like race, religion, and pornography.

If a teenager is texting one-on-one with a stranger, you won’t know unless you have their account’s username and password.

There is already a case where, due to the lack of direct access to a server’s message content, a parent is suing the gaming channel Roblox and Discord for facilitating the sexual exploitation of a minor.

Although Discord says it actively detects and addresses harmful content, the process is slow as it relies on automated systems that are supposed to filter sensitive content and scan Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).

Most responses that lead to legal action and user banning are through user reporting, proactive investigations, and community discovery guidelines.

To this end, Discord offers the perfect space for predators, cyberbullies, and bad actors to find targets without being caught. Thus, in this article, we’ll explore how you can monitor Discord using parental controls, Discord moderation, and third-party monitoring apps.

Discord Privacy: What You Should Know

Discord focuses on user privacy. As such, chats are private, and interactions are server-specific. The user has control over their profiles and servers, making it difficult to track activities across the platform. Therefore, you cannot monitor a specific person’s activity or a server without legal consent.

Dynamic User-Generated Content

Discord allows different kinds of user-generated content, including text, voice, images, and videos. With servers hosting up to 250,000 members, it’s difficult to keep up with the flow of content.

For example, there are:

• Live-moderated Channels: These are audio talks and discussions that are gated to only invited and ticketed users.
• Threads: These are temporary text channels that can be set to disappear automatically. They are supposed to foster more communication within servers. Threads pose potential dangers, such as being used to bypass moderation and harass members within a server.

Discord & Young Users

Discord’s minimum age is 13 years. This means teenagers can use Discord for private chats and join public and private Discord servers.

Until April 2025, Discord was relying on the age that a user entered when opening their account. Now, the platform is performing face scans and ID verification.

Age verification using face scans is still in its early testing stages. It will apply when users come across content that is flagged as sensitive. With communities built around various topics, including pornography, a failed age verification can make it possible that a teenager lands on a server with inappropriate content.

Moreover, there are opt-in not safe for work (NSFW) servers that contain mature content. Server admins have permission to post explicit content. Therefore, if teenagers skirt age verification, they can join such servers.

To this end, child users can receive friend requests from anyone on a shared server.

Discord recommends that users under 18 activate the Filter all feature under Direct Message spam in the Content & Social section on the Discord app. When activated, Discord will scan all the content and filter out explicit or inappropriate content.

What Administrators and Moderators Can See

Administrators create Discord servers, and moderators ensure a safe and healthy Discord experience for community members.

Discord server owners can see conversations and the content of the messages sent, including the attached media and files. In addition, they can access the message history and deleted messages. However, Discord moderators cannot see direct messages or the content of encrypted messages.

Discord prioritizes moderation by server developers and publishers. Moderators have their responsibilities, including:

• deleting unwanted messages or inappropriate content;
• allocating server timeouts and kicking out members;
• set up automatic filtering of explicit images and videos;
• handing out warnings to members who violate community guidelines and Discord’s terms of service;
• banning spam bots.

What Can Discord See?

Discord scans all spaces for harmful content like child-abuse, sexual material, and malware. It also checks for policy violations in large communities. Nevertheless, it does not scan all content in small spaces like direct messages, group chats, and non-community servers.

Discord can see a user’s activity status when it’s enabled. It can display the games you’re playing, songs you’re listening to through apps like Spotify and Euphony, and other apps you’ve integrated with Discord, such as YouTube and Twitch.

Discord logs a user’s activities within a server, like when they join, when they leave, and changes made to the server. It does not read or monitor the content of messages unless the server has been reported for a violation or because of legal requirements.

Discord Monitoring Options

Discord does not offer built-in parental controls. You can monitor a teen’s Discord directly on their account, adjust privacy features on the Family Center, monitor their account on the browser version, or use a third-party monitoring tool.

Using a Child’s Account Directly

To monitor a child’s account directly, you need their login details. That is their username and account password. Discord cannot share your child’s login information, even if you contact them. It encourages parents to discuss with teens about how to use Discord safely.

Still, if you can convince your teen to share their login details, you can control their experience on the platform.

You can control:

• who can DM them and which friend requests they can accept;
• which servers they can be part of;
• who can join the servers they create;
• allow scanning of direct messages for explicit media.

From the mobile app, you can adjust various settings like blocking direct messages, and edit friend requests permissions.

To adjust social permissions for specific servers on Mobile:

1. Open the Discord app, tap the profile icon, and then the gear icon.
2. Tap Content & Social, then scroll down to Server Settings.
   
3. Adjust server defaults or choose a specific server.
4. Click the toggle next to Direct Messages to turn it off.
   
5. You can also select a specific server to turn off DMs from that server.
   

To block users:

1. Open a server and tap a channel name.
   
2. Select a user and tap on the three dots in their profile.
3. Choose Block to block the person instantly.
   

To adjust friend requests:

1. Open Discord > profile icon and tap on the cogwheel to access settings.
   
2. Click Content & Social and scroll down to Friend Requests.
3. Toggle the blue button next to Everyone, Friends of Friends, and Server Members to the off position.
   

Use the Family Center

The Family Center connects a teen’s account to a parent’s account. You can set it up on a mobile device or a browser. Still, a parent cannot access the contents of the messages.

Teenagers can share Discord activity through an activity dashboard or through email summaries. The information available to parents and guardians includes:

• recently added friends;
• servers they have joined and participated in;
• users they have messaged or called in servers and direct messages;
• time of the last call and message.

To use Family Center, you need to connect the parent device to the teen’s Discord. You’ll have access to a monitoring dashboard that looks like this.

Monitor Discord with Third-Party Apps

There are third-party Discord monitoring apps that can see the content of messages there. One of them is mSpy. It prioritizes messaging on social media platforms, including Discord.

mSpy works remotely and in the background of the target device. Once you install it, the app will sync Discord messages to a dashboard.

mSpy syncs all data, including messages sent and received, and the files, photos, and videos shared on the platform. mSpy keyword tracker can track keywords that tell you when a teenager uses words that are unsuitable in their communication. You can also block the app entirely if they are not using it appropriately.

mSpy Discord keylogger logs keystrokes. It can capture Discord passwords, which can help you log into their Discord account.

To use mSpy for monitoring chats:

1. Install the app on your kid’s device. mSpy can monitor three kids’ devices using the Family Kit.
2. Configure the app to access its online control panel.
3. Access the online dashboard and click Discord under Messaging Surveillance.
4. Click Dashboard to see the messages sent and received from your teen’s account.

Try mSpy

You can also use mSpy for location tracking, social media apps monitoring, and internet history tracking. Read the full mSpy review by HeyLocate.

Conclusion

Discord comes with risks. That’s why knowing how to monitor Discord on your teen’s device is important.

Tracking your child’s activity directly on their account is the best way to see who they talk to and find any risky behavior.

The Family Center is ideal for seeing an overview of your child’s activities, while an app like mSpy offers discreet monitoring.