Just two weeks ago, Discord announced plans to enforce a new “teen-appropriate” experience by default next month, requiring age verification to access restricted content or change content settings, but it’s now “delaying [its] global rollout” to the second half of 2026.
In a lengthy blog, Discord co-creator and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy admitted the company had “missed the mark” and “failed at [its] most basic job: clearly explaining what we’re doing and why.”
Discord initially announced plans to roll out the “controversial” age verification checks as part of its “internal safety systems” and “enhancing its age-appropriate protections for users worldwide while maintaining “privacy, community and meaningful connection on the platform.” The changes would have been coming to countries with age verifications mandated by law, as well as those without.
The announcement came just months after Discord admitted that hackers had gained access to images of 70,000 government IDs, uploaded to the servers of a third-party vendor that it had entrusted with the data, following user contact with its Customer Support or Trust & Safety teams. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, the news did not go down well, and thousands of members revolted, cancelling Discord’s premium subscription, Nitro, and threatening to move their communities to other platforms, like Steam Groups.
In response to the community backlash and apprehension about third-parties vendors, Discord said it’s moving to introduce more options and means of verifying your age, better transparency, plus that aforementioned delayed rollout.
Looking ahead, countries that have already passed age verification laws, like the UK, Australia, and Brazil, “may [still] require platforms to use approved methods like facial age estimation or ID checks,” which means Discord cannot implement its own non-identifying systems, admitting, “we’re not the only platform navigating this.” For everyone else, though, the company reckons over 90% of people “will continue to use Discord without ever seeing an age verification prompt.”
The firm stressed again that most people won’t see any verification prompts, Discord does not get your identity, and if you don’t verify, you can keep using your account — only age-restricted spaces could be limited. It also insisted it did not read DMs to determine your age, your age group is entirely private, and it will commit “to clearer vendor transparency” and “entirely on-device” age checks.
“We’ve made mistakes. I won’t pretend we haven’t. And I know that being a bigger company now means our mistakes have bigger consequences and erode trust faster,” Vishnevskiy concluded. “I don’t expect one blog post to fix that. Trust is earned through actions over time: shipping the things we promised, owning it when we miss the mark, and giving you real control over your own experience.
“But at our core, we build Discord because we love it and use it ourselves. Our motivation is simple: we want to build a great product for ourselves and the communities we’re part of. That doesn’t exempt us from the higher bar that comes with our scale; it motivates us to meet it. We’re listening. We’ll get this right. And when we ship, you’ll be able to see for yourselves.”
Photo by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
