Age-gated programs require real age verification at opt-in
The requirementstatement
A campaign declaring age-gated content must verify age at the point of consent, not merely ask for self-attestation.
- Severityseverity
- BlockingBLOCKINGBreaking this rule gets the submission rejected. There is no partial credit.
- When it bitesphase
- Gates approvalapprovalGet this wrong and the brand or campaign is refused at registration.
- What is checkedobject
- consent surface
- Where it liveslayer
- Consent flowCONSENT_FLOW
- How Ekas settles itdetectability
- AI · crawlCRAWLAI · visionVISION
- Needs your live site or policy page fetched and read. Ekas crawls it the way a reviewer would. Needs the pixels: a screenshot of the opt-in surface, a scanned paper form, an MMS attachment.
- What the fix involvesfailureClass
- Fix the websiteTERMINAL_WEBSITE
- The fix lives on your site. No amount of rewording the form clears it.
- Who requires itauthorities
- CTIAT-MobileTCR
- When it appliesapplicabilityText
- Applies when `ageGated` is true.
Why this rule existsrationale
Robust age verification means electronic confirmation of age and identity, which in practice means collecting a full date of birth. The carrier discretion to waive age gating was removed in SCMH v1.8, so a self-attest tick box that used to be tolerated now fails, and the underlying content categories carry per-message violation fees.
How to fix itremediation
Collect a full date of birth (MM/DD/YYYY) at opt-in and reject under-age submissions server-side. Replace any "I am 21 or older" checkbox — self-attestation is not robust verification and is no longer waivable.
Rules you will hit next
6 other rules read consent surface. Fixing one field to satisfy a single rule is how a resubmission trades one rejection for another, so read these before you change anything.
CON-043A mandatory phone field needs its own separate, optional SMS opt-inBlockingBLOCKINGCON-108The disclosure must be on the same page as the phone-number fieldBlockingBLOCKINGCON-BOX-BUNDLEDMessaging consent must be separate from terms acceptanceBlockingBLOCKINGCON-BOX-PRESENTAn explicit affirmative opt-in control must existBlockingBLOCKINGCON-BOX-UNCHECKEDThe consent control must be unchecked by defaultBlockingBLOCKINGCON-DISC-ADJACENTDisclosures must appear at the point of opt-in, not only in linked documentsBlockingBLOCKING
CON-AGE-GATE is one of 101 consent flow rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.