Age Gates: What are they, when do you need one?

If your website references any content that is age-regulated in any jurisdiction, you are required to utilize an age gate. Not only may this be required by law in your jurisdiction, but also Google and other search engines penalize websites that don’t feature an age gate when its required.

As the name implies, age gates are barriers to restrict visitors of a certain age. They are most commonly used for websites referencing age-restricted content, chiefly alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explicit content. Other examples of industries required to enforce an age gate include certain elective medical procedures, piercing services, and tattoo shops.

An age gate does not have to verify that the user is of a certain age, only warn that the content is age-restricted.

For WordPress, there are plugins available to make implementing an age gate easy. Otherwise, you may have to work with your website developer to implement.