Discord pauses age verification amid backlash from users
Discord has officially confirmed that it has delayed the rollout of age verification globally after backlash from users. The messaging platform had planned to introduce the system in March, but the reaction from the community was negative. Stanislav Vishnevskiy, the co-founder and CTO of Discord, admitted in an article published on the companyโs blog, that Discord knew that the age verification system was controversial, and people would react strongly to it.
He also mentioned that several users had walked away believing that the process required face scans, and ID photos to use Discord, and were concerned about their privacy. Vishnevskiy says that 90% of Discord users will not need to verify their age to use the platform. Discord has an internal safety system that is used to determine the age of many adult users automatically. If a user falls in the other 10%, Discord will offer them options that are designed to share their age with the company, but not the userโs identity. Users may opt not to verify their age, which will still let them continue using the platform, access their friends list, DMs, voice chat, etc. But unverified users wonโt be able to access some age-restricted content or modify certain default safety settings that are used to protect younger users.
The memories of the recent security breach in October 2025 are fresh on the mind of users, who pointed out that Discordโs provider had exposed thousands of government ID photos. Discord plans to resume its age verification rollout in the second half of the year, after adding more verification options.
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