Discord Is Changing Forever For Millions Of Users

Published Sep 7, 2026, 10:53 AM EDT Lee D’Amato is a writer born, raised, and based in Queens, New York. With collective thousands of hours in games like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Elden Ring, and The Legend of Zelda, he's now writes game features, guides, and reviews for Screen Rant, but has covered a wide range of topics, including ancient history, affordable travel, and overall health. Discord, the chat app of choice for countless PC gamers, is soon to bring back a controversial policy, according to new reports. A popular instant messaging app, Discord offers voice, video, and text chat to users worldwide. Although it's primarily associated with the PC platform, in recent years, Discord has launched both Xbox and PlayStation 5 integration, expanding its offerings in the gaming space. Even outside of gaming, Discord has become a popular tool for staying in touch with friends and connecting with fan communities, with the company itself estimating over 200 million users across 19 million servers. Certain things may change soon, though, for those millions of users as Discord eyes a return to age verification. Per a report from Gadget Review, Discord is set to continue the rollout of its global age verification policy in the second half of 2026. In other words, many users will have to prove that they're over 18 years old by uploading government ID or subjecting themselves to a credit card check in order to access adult content, servers, speaking in Stage channels, or their message request settings. Discord began to roll out age verification requirements last year, beginning in Australia and the UK. Now, though, it's considering a much broader policy that'll affect users around the world. It's part of a much broader effort to enforce online age limits more strictly, with world governments on the national and local levels introducing blanket bans on social media for minors. Of course, Discord users generally find nothing inherently wrong with the chat client restricting mature content to users ages 18 and up. It becomes a security risk, though, when Discord is collecting sensitive information to do it. Back in October, the chat client had a major data breach, with over 70,000 users impacted, some of whom had their government-issued IDs leaked after Discord had collected them for age verification. That became a point of controversy when Discord announced its plans to introduce age verification globally in March. The company willingly pushed back age verification rollout to the second half of 2026, a time frame we're well within now. For its part, Discord hasn't officially announced an updated timeline for the rollout, although local laws in Texas now require the chat client to introduce age-assurance features similar to those piloted in the UK. Discord previously claimed that over 90% of the app's users won't be required to verify their age in order to continue using Discord as they do today; the app can independently determine some users' ages based on account age and payment activity. Many users have taken to other social media platforms to express their dissatisfaction with Discord, threatening to cancel their Nitro subscriptions or stop using the app altogether if they're required to upload proof of ID. It's unclear what steps are next for Discord, but, if the backlash is as widespread as these users claim, it could change the face of PC gaming forever. Brand Apple, HP, Microsoft, Dell, Samsung, Lenovo, Toshiba, Asus, Acer Original Release Date 1971 Original MSRP (USD) The Kenbak I is considered the very first PC, which cost $750 back in 1971. Adjusted for inflation, the first PC cost around $4,659. Hardware Versions PC Weight The Kenbak I weighed around 20 pounds, but today, computers vary in weight depending on the equipment used for gaming.