They've done this because AU, NZ, and the UK all require this today. At least 5 EU countries are voting on it [0] with several led by Denmark encouraging it to

They've done this because AU, NZ, and the UK all require this today. At least 5 EU countries are voting on it [0] with several led by Denmark encouraging it to be an EU-wide law. Most US states have a law in some part of the process as well, with at least a handful with laws on the books [1]. At some point every social media service is going to have to do this. Discord got a ton of bad press by being the first to say it out loud (and ask for feedback about it!) and give a timeline for worldwide roll out (early May). Discord isn't going to be the last to announce it. I think we all expect Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) to roll out whatever their solution will be under the cover of darkness (and dark patterns), just shows up one day with no easy opt-out and worse than what Discord is currently planning. > There is absolutely no way we should support giving identifying information to a U.S. company given what's going on right now. For what little it is worth, so far Discord has been using a third-party vendor for handling this information called k-ID [2]. k-ID looks like it is fully remote and has a globally distributed workforce including many in the US, but its press kit and job posting imply it is a company registered and based out of the Republic of Singapore. [0] https://europeannewsroom.com/to-ban-or-not-to-ban-eu-countries-debate-social-media-age-limits/ https://europeannewsroom.com/to-ban-or-not-to-ban-eu-countri... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_age_verification_laws_in_the_United_States#/media/File:Social_media_age_verification_laws_as_of_may_3,_2025.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_age_verification_... [2] https://www.k-id.com/ https://www.k-id.com/