Twitter today announced that it has implemented a new age-screening system for users who are willing to follow alcohol brands. Seeing as it is a global social network, and the legal drinking age varies in different countries, Twitter will now ask users to confirm their date of birth when they follow such a brand. The microblogging network will then check if they’re of or over the legal drinking age in their country, if they are, their follow request will be approved and if they aren’t, the follow will be denied.
The age-screening feature has been rolled out on twitter.com, and on its iOS and Android apps. Users will be asked to punch in their date of birth once they tap or click on the follow button of an alcohol brand’s Twitter profile. Once age is provided, Twitter checks if the user is of the legal drinking age in their country. When the age-screening test is passed, Twitter confirms the follower status and also remembers that the user’s account met the age requirement without actually storing the date of birth. As previously mentioned, those who don’t meet the required age, will have their follow request denied. Twitter has initially partnered with brands like Bud Light, Jim Beam, Knob Creek, Bacardi and Heineken. Even if the addition of an age-gate is a nice step to ensure that users under the legal age of drinking in their country don’t follow these brands, its not like people almost always haven’t lied about their age on the internet.
Filed in . Read more about Twitter.