Discord delays age verification measures as it admits what it got ‘wrong’

Discord announced on Tuesday that it will delay the implementation of previously announced, but controversially received, age verification measures.

Earlier this month, Discord announced that the “default teen” setting would roll out to all users next month, meaning users would have to verify their adult age on the platform to use all of its features. The news was not well received by users, with some calling the verification requirements a “dealing factor.” Just two weeks later, Discord is delaying the global launch of that plan until the second half of 2026. An exact date has not been specified.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Discord CTO and co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy says the company knew the initial announcement would end up being “controversial” and acknowledges the skepticism gained toward tech companies when it comes to facial ID software and the like. The blog notes that “over 90% of users will never need to verify their age to continue using Discord exactly as they do today. This is in part due to our internal security systems, which can already determine the age of many adult users without any user action.”

He points out several ways Discords verifies users’ ages without the need for government facial ID scans: “how long your account has existed, whether you have a payment method on file, what types of servers you’re on, and general patterns of account activity.” Discord notes that the company does not read any of your messages, but acknowledges that asking for trust is not enough and will share its methods later. (Trust in the company is already shaky after Discord was already linked to a user data breach last fall.)

Discord will continue its age verification methods in countries where it is required by law, such as Australia, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. However, it is delaying the global launch until the second half of 2026. To ensure the global launch is ready, Discord will add more verification options, such as credit card verification.

Time will tell if Discord’s explanations and attempts at transparency will be enough or if they will be considered too little, too late. After people rushed to look for alternatives to Discord following the initial announcement, the damage may already be done in the eyes of many Discord users.

Here’s everything Discord plans to do to prepare for the global rollout of its age-restricted settings, according to its blog post:

1. Adding more verification options. We already had alternatives in development, including credit card verification. We will complete and expand them before scaling them globally so you have more options that you are comfortable with.
2. Supplier transparency. We will document each verification provider and their practices on our website and make it clear in the product who each provider is. We’ve also established a new requirement: any partner offering facial age estimation must do so entirely on-device. If they do not meet that requirement, we will not work with them.
3. A new spoiler channel option. We know that many communities use age-restricted channels not for mature content, but for topics that people prefer to interact with on their own terms: spoilers, politics, and heavier conversations. We’re creating a dedicated spoiler channel option so communities don’t have to age limit their server just to give members that option.
4. A technical blog post ahead of the global launch. We will publish a detailed post explaining how our automated age determination systems work, including signal categories and privacy restrictions. So you can evaluate our approach yourselves.
5. Age assurance data in our transparency reports. We will include how many users were asked to verify, what methods they used, and how often our automated systems handled it without any user action.