Discord delays age verification rollout after privacy backlash

Discord is delaying its age verification rollout after backlash from users, and has addressed privacy concerns in a new blog. Home > Tech Discord delays age verification rollout after privacy backlash "We don't want to know who you are." By Amanda Yeo Amanda Yeo Assistant Editor Amanda Yeo is an Assistant Editor at Mashable, covering entertainment, culture, tech, science, and social good. Based in Australia, she writes about everything from video games and K-pop to movies and gadgets. Read Full Bio on February 25, 2026 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Flipboard Credit: Silas Stein / picture alliance via Getty Images Discord is delaying its age verification rollout after significant backlash from users over privacy fears. While it still plans to implement mandatory age checks for all its users, the popular voice chat and messaging platform has pushed back global rollout to the second half of 2026. In the meantime, it's hoping to alleviate users' concerns by clarifying exactly what they can expect when it does arrive. SEE ALSO: Discord age verification: How it works, when it happens Co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy addressed misgivings about Discord's age verification system in a blog posted on Tuesday, attempting to reassure worried users."In hindsight, we should have provided more detail about our intentions and how the process works," Vishnevskiy wrote. "The way this landed, many of you walked away thinking we're requiring face scans and ID uploads from everyone just to use Discord. That's not what's happening, but the fact that so many people believe it tells us we failed at our most basic job: clearly explaining what we're doing and why… You May Also Like "Our goal is straightforward: keep the Discord experience completely unchanged for the vast majority of people while ensuring an age-appropriate experience for everyone."Discord clarifies how age verification will impact usersEarlier this month, Discord announced that all users' accounts would be defaulted to teen safety settings from March, which could only be deactivated once the platform had verified their age. This change was to include adding filters that blur sensitive content unless a user's age has been verified, as well as preventing them from accessing age-restricted spaces. Direct messages from potentially unknown senders would also be sent to a separate inbox, and only age-verified users would be able to speak in stage channels, voice chat rooms featuring a number of speakers while others listen as an audience.Many Discord users expressed disgruntlement at this announcement, with some even fleeing to alternative platforms. Now, in addition to pushing back the teen safety settings global rollout to the latter part of the year, Vishnevskiy has stated that most Discord users' experiences won't actually change much once it does arrive. In the majority of cases, the platform will automatically guess users' ages using available data without requiring them to supply additional information or documentation."For 90%+ of users, nothing changes. Most users never access age-restricted content or change their default safety settings," wrote Vishnevskiy (emphasis original). "For those who do, we have an internal system that works to accurately determine your age… [using] account-level signals: 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."Vishnevskiy noted that Discord already uses such signals for other purposes, such as to detect spam, raids, and harassment campaigns."If you're among the less than 10% of users who do need to verify, we'll give you options, designed to tell us only your age and never your identity," Vishnevskiy continued (emphasis original). "Your age group is private. No other user on Discord can see it."If you are among this 10 percent of users and choose not to manually verify your age, Vishnevskiy claims you will be unable to see age-restricted content or change some of Discord's default safety settings, but that "[n]othing else about your Discord experience changes." It is unclear exactly what these default settings might be, or if they're fully encompassed by the restrictions Discord laid out for teen safety settings earlier this month. Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. Loading... Sign Me Up Use this instead By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! Mashable has reached out to Discord for comment.Data collection and privacy concernsVishnevskiy also acknowledged fears regarding invasive data collection, with many users leery of potentially handing over their personal ID for access to all of Discord's features."[M]any of you are worried that this is just another big tech company finding new ways to collect your personal data," he wrote. "That we're creating a problem to justify invasive solutions. I get that skepticism. It's earned, not just tow