Discord postpones global age verification to the second half of 2026 as it considers adding more verification options

Discord’s recent age verification announcement was not welcomed by everyone. Many users were uncomfortable with the idea of uploading government IDs or using facial verification technology, especially after a data breach in October last year compromised the government IDs of around 70,000 Discord users. Now, it seems like following massive backlash from the community, Discord has decided to postpone the global rollout of the system until the second half of 2026.

In a recent update, CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy admitted that the company made mistakes in how it introduced the change. He said Discord failed to clearly explain what the system would actually involve. Many users believed everyone would be required to submit face scans or ID documents just to continue using the platform. According to him, that was not the plan, but he acknowledged that the company did not communicate this properly.

He clarified that over 90% of users would not need to verify their age at all. Discord already has internal systems that can determine age groups using account-level signals, such as how long an account has existed or whether a payment method is linked. These systems do not read messages or analyze private conversations.

For the small group of users who may need manual verification, Discord says it will offer multiple options, such as credit card verification. This would allow users to verify they are adults without submitting biometric data or government IDs. Discord also promised more transparency, as it plans to publish details about its verification vendors, explain how its automatic systems work, and include age verification data in its transparency reports.