Discord has delayed its controversial age verification measures that were set to go live globally on March 1, saying that the negative feedback following the initial announcement had been heard. Discord stated that, while it has not canceled any age verification plans outright, it would be more transparent with who it was working with moving forward.
The announcement came just under a week before Discord was set to begin enforcing age verification around the world, following similar measures that have been implemented in countries like the UK and Australia. Under the plan, Discord would have sorted users into a “teen-by-default” status that filtered out age-restricted pieces of content, including servers and channels marked with a content warning. Turning this setting off would require users to submit a valid form of identification, such as an ID or facial scan, via Discord’s vendor partners. However, the move was met with backlash, as users began canceling Discord Nitro and looking for alternatives to Discord for voice communications.
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Discord’s Age Verification Rollout Has Been Pushed Back
Following the backlash that came from Discord’s previous age verification announcement, one of the company’s leaders addressed the concerns users had concerning enforcement and privacy. Co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy posted that Discord is delaying age verification rollout to the second half of 2026. Vishnevskiy said that Discord “missed the mark” with its age verification announcement and that Discord had failed to fully explain how its age verification would work. Vishnevskiy said that over 90% of Discord users will not need to verify their age to keep using the app, since they don’t change any default security settings. For those that do, Discord’s internal systems that are currently used to determine a user’s age will still be in place.
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Given that popular games like Roblox also have age verification processes in place, Discord said that age verification laws in the UK, Australia, and other territories were a factor in its decisions. In response to user feedback, Discord will add a spoiler channel option for server owners to utilize. This will give communities another way to allow discussions on heavy topics, politics, or story spoilers, without the need for an age restriction. Ergo, Discord servers would not need to age-gate their entire server just to give its members the choice to discuss specific topics that would otherwise fall under the age-restricted category. Additionally, Discord will post transparency reports on age assurance and on the vendors it uses for this process. Discord will also explore additional methods of verification, including using a credit card, as a way to ensure user privacy is kept.
Discord Seeks to Rebuild Trust After Mass Backlash
Vishnevskiy added that, moving forward, Discord would only work with third-party vendors that have “on-device” verification as part of the process, and that Discord would fully list any partners it was working with. Any partners that fail to meet Discord’s bar will not be used. Vishnevskiy acknowledged that it partnered with Persona for some age verification testing in the UK, but determined that the partnership would not be moving forward. If a user needs to verify their age, Discord would provide multiple vendors for users to pick from, all of which must adhere to Discord’s on-device requirements. Vishnevskiy said that users were right to be skeptical about age verification, following a data breach at one of Discord’s former customer service providers in 2025. Vishnevskiy stated that they no longer work with said vendor at all and that they have “taken the lessons from that incident seriously.”
Discord acknowledged it had a lot of work to do to regain user trust, as more users started turning to TeamSpeak and other voice chatting programs following Discord’s previous post. Although Discord still plans to roll out its age verification steps in the future, time will tell how much of an impact the ensuing backlash will have.
