After Backlash, Discord Will Delay Age Verification Changes to Its Platform

In a lengthy blog post from its CTO and co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord announced it will delay and refine changes to the way the company handles content and communications for younger users, including adding age verification features.

Earlier this month, the real-time chat and message board service announced it was going to default all user accounts to a Teen setting. This would restrict access to adult-oriented servers and limit some content and communications for accounts that weren't already auto-detected as adult or manually age-verified by Discord users.

Vishnevskiy acknowledged that the company's plan was not communicated clearly, leading to significant backlash. Many people, he said, believed everyone would be required to scan their faces and upload their government IDs to be age-verified.

"That's not what's happening, but the fact that so many people believe it tells us we failed at our most basic ...