Discord Pushing Back Age Verification to Late 2026 After Mass Backlash

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After receiving strong feedback from users, Discord has delayed its plans for age verification until sometime in 2026. The company shared this update in a blog post from its co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Stanislav Vishnevskiy.

To understand the reaction, it helps to look at what Discord had planned just weeks earlier.

The Original Plan

On February 9, 2026, Discord announced that, beginning in early March, it would automatically provide a safer experience for teens. This includes adjusted communication settings, limited access to adult-only areas, and content filtering. Users wanting to join age-restricted channels or servers would need to verify their age using an outside service.

The change caused concern among users who didn’t want their personal information linked to their accounts. These concerns grew after a security issue in October 2025 involving a vendor Discord no longer works with, and questions about Discord’s partnership with another company called Persona, which helps verify ages.

In a recent blog post, Vishnevskiy admitted that users have good reason to worry about Discord finding new ways to collect their data, even if it means inventing problems to push for more intrusive solutions. He explained that this distrust isn’t just directed at Discord, but at the entire tech industry as a whole, and that it’s been earned through past behavior.

Safety, Regulation, and Compliance

Discord understands the challenge of balancing user privacy with the need to protect young people, according to Vishnevskiy. He explained that Discord also wants adults to have full access to content. To do this safely, they’re implementing measures to keep content meant for adults in spaces specifically for adults.

He points out that most users – around 90% – don’t visit content with age restrictions, so they won’t need to verify their age to keep using the platform.

Discord is updating its policies to follow child protection laws already in place in the UK and Australia, and upcoming laws in Brazil and several U.S. states. To remain accessible in these regions, Discord needs to demonstrate to government officials that it’s meeting verification standards and legal requirements.

Discord is still planning to require age verification, even though it’s been postponed for the time being. They consider it a necessary step and won’t be skipping it.

Privacy Concerns

Vishnevskiy clarified that third-party vendors help protect user privacy by ensuring neither Discord nor the vendor itself can directly identify individuals. He explained, “We only need to verify age, not personal identity.” This system is designed to be mutual—the vendor can’t link user information back to their Discord account either. This is intentional and built into how the system works.

Discord requires all of its vendors to follow specific rules about how they use and store data, including limits on data usage and requirements for when data must be deleted. Vishnevskiy assured users that Discord will be completely open about its vendors and provide full documentation of their data handling procedures.

Some users might not like the idea of their personal information being stored, even for a short time. Any system that gathers identifying information – even if it gets it from other companies – could become a target for security threats.

Delay Doesn’t Resolve the Tension

Vishnevskiy explained that the implementation of age verification will be postponed until the latter half of 2026. They will, however, continue to comply with any existing legal requirements. The broader rollout will only begin once internal goals are achieved.

  • Adding more verification options
  • Vendor transparency
  • A new spoiler channel option
  • A technical blog post before global launch
  • Age assurance data in transparency reports

Even though age verification might become legally required, it’s important to remember that trust is easily lost. Simply postponing implementation doesn’t fix the underlying problems. While Discord has temporarily paused its rollout of age verification, just being open about the process and making promises won’t stop the criticism – it might only give the company more time to address concerns.

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2026-02-25 02:00