Discord Delays Controversial Age Verification, Saying They “Missed the Mark”
After receiving backlash, Discord delays controversial age verification system that they planned to roll out on March 1.
Earlier this month, Discord announced that a “teen-by-default” setting would launch for all users, meaning that users would need to verify their adulthood to use its features. Of course, this wasn’t received well, with many pushing back against the social platform.
Getting Global Age Assurance Right: What We Got Wrong and What’s Changing.
— Discord (@discord) February 24, 2026
Read the update: https://t.co/h7aRGmN7xW
On a Tuesday post, Discord CTO and co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy said that the announcement would be “controversial” and acknowledged the earned skepticism toward tech companies when it comes to facial ID software. The post clarified that “90% of users will never need to verify their age to continue using Discord exactly as they do today. This is powered in part by our internal safety systems, which can already make an age determination for many adult users without a user action.”
The post continued, sharing the ways that Discord can verify ages without ID scans, including “how long your account has existed, whether you have a payment method on file, what types of servers you’re in, and general patterns of account activity.”
Along with those clarifications, Vishnevskiy said that Discord “missed the mark” with its age verification announcement and that Discord had failed to fully explain how it’s going to work. That being said, the company decided to push the rollout, but not cancel it entirely.
We’ve seen some questions about our age assurance update and we want to share more clarity. We know how important these changes are to our community.
— Discord (@discord) February 10, 2026
Here’s what we want you to know:
‣‣‣ 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗮… https://t.co/IdjRn06c5A
But why incorporate this system to begin with? According to the company, the decision was made because of a few factors, one being the age verification laws in the UK, Australia, and other territories. The other was because of popular games like Roblox having similar processes in place.
Vishnevskiy also added that Discord will work on building trust back up with its users and clarify the process as they push back the rollout. According to the CTO and co-founder, they’re working on additional plans, including adding more verification options to avoid ID scans, such as credit card verification. Discord also plans on being more transparent with its vendors and cutting partnerships with those that don’t meet its standards. They’re also planning on scheduling a technical blog post before the global launch to give full details and clarity to the new process.
Hopefully, with more clarity and more options for users, the controversial age verification process will be met with less backlash. What do you think about Discord’s upcoming update? Keep checking back here for the latest video game news.
