Discord has started rolling out its new, controversial age verification system for all users, but this time the company is offering more ways to prove your age in the hope of avoiding the massive amount of backlash it received last time it tried to do this in February. It also addressed various bugs with the age verification system via a sarcastic tweet, which didn’t go over well.
Last week, online chat and communication service Discord activated age verification for all users. Discord estimates a user’s age based on several factors, including how old the account is, what communities and servers they are a part of, and what games are connected to the account. The chat company says it doesn’t look at messages or calls as part of its age estimation system. It also says that 90 percent of Discord users won’t have to bother with age verification thanks to its age estimation system.
For adult users who aren’t sorted into the right age group, Discord is offering multiple ways beyond uploading a photo ID or scanning your face to prove your age, including credit card checks and connecting a Google Wallet, among other options. You can see which age group Discord has sorted you into here.
For 18+ Discord users, nothing really changes, and they can continue using the chat service as they did before. However, for teen users, there will be new restrictions. Messages from non-friends will be directed to a separate inbox for review, users will receive extra warnings when getting a friend request from someone who doesn’t share mutual friends or servers with them, and age-restricted channels and bot commands will not be accessible. Teen profiles on Discord will only be visible to friends and people in smaller servers that they’re part of.
Discord’s ‘extremely popular’ age verification system has some bugs
As you would likely expect, this age verification rollout hasn’t been perfect. Discord has confirmed some users are being sorted into the wrong age group or weren’t being sorted at all, which also limited their access to Discord features. Other issues include people being verified as an adult on one platform, but their age status being unconfirmed on another platform, like mobile. For some people, it was a real mess they suddenly had to deal with after likely using Discord for years with no issue.
On September 23, in response to these issues and bugs, Discord posted a sarcastic message and meme on the service’s official Twitter account:
when you launch an extremely popular age assurance update that everyone on Discord was really looking forward to and it has bugs https://t.co/I9dVu9ZhET pic.twitter.com/BLAz9fWTSn
— Discord (@discord) September 24, 2026
“When you launch an extremely popular age assurance update that everyone on Discord was really looking forward to and it has bugs,” posted Discord. This didn’t go over well at all with fed-up users who were struggling with bugs and other age verification issues. Many people online felt like Discord was acting “childish” or not taking the situation seriously, and threatened to close their accounts in response. Others just created images featuring Discord’s mascot character being tortured or beaten up.
“I am legit probably going to close my servers and delete my account after all this,” replied popular Fallout content creator TKs-Mantis. “The fact that you all seem to try to make childish jokes about every little thing doesn’t help either. I know that if I am thinking this way, many more are too. Absolutely tone deaf company.”
“So you steal our data and now make fun of us? Fuck you,” replied another Discord user.
Not helping matters was the fact that right after the age verification system went live, many Discord users, myself included, began seeing ads for sports betting appear in the app.
Likely in response to the negative replies and people pointing out that this is not a great time to be sarcastic and silly, Discord replied to its meme with a follow-up message that was more serious and explained that it had already fixed some age-related bugs and was continuing its work to squash more of them.
This is Discord’s second attempt to roll out age verification
You might remember that earlier this year, Discord already initiated and then delayed its first real attempt at a large-scale age verification system. In February, the company announced plans to roll out an age verification system that was very similar to what was just rolled out, including sorting most users into adult or teen groups based on previously mentioned factors like account age and which servers they’re in.
However, that attempt blew up in Discord’s face as users were upset that if they weren’t properly sorted by Discord’s algorithm, they would have to prove their age, and that the chat company was only going to allow users to do so via face scans and government ID uploads. Many, including those concerned with privacy, bristled at having to prove their age through those means. It also didn’t help that in 2025, hackers stole the government IDs of over 70,000 UK and Australian users.
Discord relented a few weeks later, admitting it had announced its plans poorly and promising to make changes to its age verification plans before relaunching them later in the year. And this time around, if you need to verify your age, Discord gives you more options and is promising that it isn’t storing or reading credit cards and IDs used to verify age. It has also provided more transparency about the third-party vendors it’s using for these services.
“In February, the only methods we’d planned for to confirm your age were facial age estimation or an ID scan. Based on your feedback, we committed to giving you more options that meet our high privacy standards,” said Discord CTO and co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy in a blog post announcing the age system changes.
As for why Discord is rolling out age verification at all, Vishnevskiy explained that the company has no choice as more states and countries begin passing laws that require online platforms and services to verify user ages.
“Age assurance draws strong opinions and skepticism, especially when it involves sharing biometric information or a form of ID,” said the CTO.
“At the same time, age assurance laws are expanding, and since my last post we’ve had to launch age assurance in other regions, including in Brazil and in Texas. We’re hearing from policymakers in countless states and countries who want stronger teen protections, from the European Union to Indonesia. To me, that makes it more important than ever to show that this can be done in a privacy-preserving way: one where more than 90% of you won’t have to confirm your age.”
Discord also says that regardless of your age, you’ll still be able to access Discord and use many of its features and services. And despite people yelling about privacy concerns about this rollout and suggesting they’ll cancel their account, Discord is committed to the rollout this time around, and shows no signs of backpedaling or delaying it.
