# WEB-112 — An alcohol age gate must enforce 21, not 18

> Where the restricted content is alcohol, the age gate must enforce a 21+ threshold rather than 18+.

- **Rule ID:** WEB-112
- **Layer:** Website (`WEBSITE`)
- **Checks:** `age-gate threshold`
- **Severity:** BLOCKING — Breaking this rule gets the submission rejected outright.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** AI judgement over the crawled website or policy page
- **Fix type:** Fix the website — no form edit clears it
- **Required by:** Twilio, CTIA
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/website/web-112/

## Why this rule exists

Twenty-one is the US drinking age, so an 18+ gate admits a whole cohort the rule exists to exclude and does it while looking compliant. The mistake travels with software: templates and plugins ship with 18 as the default because that is the threshold most of the world uses, and nobody changes it.

## How to fix it

Set the gate's minimum age to 21 wherever alcohol content is served, and check the plugin default rather than assuming it. Done when entering a date of birth for a twenty-year-old is refused.

## Provider rejection codes

| Provider | Code | Resubmission allowed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Twilio (gen2) | `30955` | yes |

## Notes

Conditional on alcohol content being present, carried in the criteria rather than as a tag — there is no alcohol attribute on the registration, and the declared ageGated flag says nothing about which substance is behind the gate.