• by Colin Kirkland , February 25, 2026

Following user backlash and third-party partnership issues, Discord will postpone the rollout of its mandatory global age-verification initiative, according to a statement made by the social forum platform's CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy.

Earlier this month, Discord detailed an age-assurance protocol, announcing that all new and existing users would receive a “teen-appropriate experience by default” delivered automatically beginning in March. To be confirmed as an adult, users would have to complete an age-verification process. 

Immediately, users shared concerns about the mandatory protocol, citing the leak of 70,000 Discord user government IDs from October when a former Discord age check partner was hacked.

Although the company stated in response that most users would be able to prove their age without the submission of IDs, users pointed to an archived disclaimer that Discord chose to delete on February 15, which described “an experiment” being carried out in the U.K. in which user information would be processed by an age-assurance vendor, Persona.

Due to additional concerns surrounding Persona's policies and alleged ties to federal governments, Discord then dropped the age-verification company as a partner.

Now, Discord is officially delaying the launch of its age-verification rollout until the second half of 2026.

“We knew this rollout would be controversial,” stated Vishnevskiy in a blog post, adding that “in hindsight, we should have provided more detail about our intentions and how the process works.”

Vishnevskiy described the company's intentions and logistics regarding Discord's age verification protocol, stating that over 90% of users “will never need to verify their age to continue using Discord exactly how they do today” due to the company's internal safety system already in place.

The CTO says that the system's age-verification methodology will be detailed in a future post.

For users who do need to prove their age to gain access to certain age-restricted content, Discord will provide a wider selection of options, while those who do not wish to verify their age will still be able to keep their account, friends list, DM history and voice chat.

“We don't want to know who you are,” Vishnevskiy explains. “We just need to know whether you're an adult.”

Persona -- the third party age-verification partner testing with a small portion of Discord’s U.K. audience -- has been abandoned by Discord due to its inability to meet the company’s new security standard for facial recognition, which Vishnevskiy says must be performed “entirely on-device” so that users’ biometric data never leaves their phone.

In countries where laws require the use of age-verification platforms, including the U.K., Australia, and Brazil, Vishnevskiy states that “any adult who tries to access age-restricted content will need to verify their age through a vendor like k-ID to get access.”

Discord has not yet named a new facial recognition age-verification vendor.