The Discord app.Gabby Jones / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleFeb. 25, 2026, 10:11 AM ESTBy Minyvonne BurkeListen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Discord, the popular online communication platform for gamers, said Wednesday it will delay its global age verification rollout after it received user criticism.
Discord announced a phased rollout for new and existing users this month that would implement video selfies to determine a person's age group. Users could also submit a form of identification to their vendor partners.
The rollout, which was supposed to begin in early March, would give underage users a "teen-appropriate experience" that included updated communication settings, content filtering and restricted access to age-gated spaces.
Criticism was immediate, with many users pointing to an October security breach of a third-party provider Discord used that exposed government ID photos for thousands of users, The Associated Press reported.
The platform’s chief technology officer, Stanislav Vishnevskiy, responded to the backlash in an update Tuesday, saying that Discord "missed the mark" and that the rollout is being delayed to the second half of 2026.
"Let me be upfront: we knew this rollout was going to be controversial. Any time you introduce something that touches identity and verification, people are going to have strong feelings. Rightfully so. In hindsight, we should have provided more detail about our intentions and how the process works," Vishnevskiy wrote in a blog post.
Vishnevskiy said that the platform won't require face scans or ID uploads from everyone and that over 90% of users will never need to verify their ages to continue using it.
"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 said.
If users choose not to verify their ages, they can keep their accounts, servers, friends lists, messages and voice chats, but they won't be able to access age-restricted content or change certain safety settings.
Vishnevskiy also addressed last year's security breach, saying Discord no longer works with that vendor.
"We’ve made mistakes. I won’t pretend we haven’t. And I know that being a bigger company now means our mistakes have bigger consequences and erode trust faster. I don’t expect one blog post to fix that," he said.
"We’re listening. We’ll get this right. And when we ship, you’ll be able to see for yourselves," he added.
Minyvonne Burke is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News.
