Website 21YOA and up ? when you first get to the website.

[Ryan S.]

Do you have to have that ? there by law? Who regulates that? TTB?

[Jason Parker]

My understanding is that it's voluntary, but "required" if you abide by the basic principles laid out by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS). To see everything you're expected to do, have a look at the Code of Responsible Practices, and for your specific topic (age verification) see the Distilled Spirits Council's Guidance Note on Responsible Digital Marketing Communications.

[eli]

Hey Ryan,

It's industry self-regulation (via DISCUS - as linked to by Jason). If you're concerned about underage drinking then more important than slapping an age-gate on your site is to make sure your Facebook page is correctly categorized in Wine and Spirits - which automatically excludes people under 21 from seeing your messages and Liking your page. You can see it by going to EDIT PAGE and then EDIT INFO, I've included a screencap of what it should look like when correctly categorized - NOTE: you might want to be a different category than Brands & Products, that's a category I've seen used with small distillers and large brands owned by large distillers.

-Eli

[Ryan S.]

Hey Ryan,

It's industry self-regulation (via DISCUS - as linked to by Jason). If you're concerned about underage drinking then more important than slapping an age-gate on your site is to make sure your Facebook page is correctly categorized in Wine and Spirits - which automatically excludes people under 21 from seeing your messages and Liking your page. You can see it by going to EDIT PAGE and then EDIT INFO, I've included a screencap of what it should look like when correctly categorized - NOTE: you might want to be a different category than Brands & Products, that's a category I've seen used with small distillers and large brands owned by large distillers.

-Eli

Thank you for the info Eli and Jason. Do you know if twitter, instagram, etc. have something similar? I only use linkedin right now but Ill get back into the other stuff now that Im in a business that requires it.

[bluestar]

I haven't tested, we are a "local business" on Facebook, and we selected "liquor store" for our retail room to try and get the same result. How do we know it works, I wonder?

[eli]

Bluestar,

You can check on MANAGE PERMISSIONS and change your AGE RESTRICTIONS - here's a screenshot:

Also, you can look at your Facebook Insights and see what the age breakdown is of your LIKES: https://www.facebook.com/BlueStarPotables/page_insights_likes or https://www.facebook.com/QuincyStreetDistillery/page_insights_likes or https://www.facebook.com/BlueStarDistillery/page_insights_likes

You should have no Likes in the 13-17 age band (for example).

Ryan - you can categorize your page as alcohol-related on Twitter by opting in here: https://age.twitter.com/

Instagram is Facebook, I'm not certain what you can do at this point or if you'd need to worry about it until it's easy to connect a Company/Brand Facebook page to the instagram account.

Hope that helps!

-Eli

[bluestar]

Thanks, Eli. Was that always there? I didn't recall it being there when we first set the page up. We lost only 3 likes, but that showed that it works.

[eli]

Welcome Bluestar. I don't believe it was always there.