How do I age-gate my group(s)?

How to age-gate your group(s) to meet S.H.A.F.T compliance for Tobacco or Alcohol promotions.

Support and Success at Mobiniti avatar
Written by Support and Success at Mobiniti
Updated over a week ago

Age-gating's importance depends on your business. Anything having to do with sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, and tobacco have restrictions across Short Codes, or 6 digit numbers. Currently, only alcohol and tobacco can be sent over short codes and they have to be to age-gated Groups, or a segmentation of your list of subscribers. Age-gating makes sure that the subscribers, or people who opt-in to your groups, are over the age of 18, a legal requirement to receive marketing messages about alcohol or tobacco.

Make sure you fully understand S.H.A.F.T compliance by reading the S.H.A.F.T Guidelines.


How to Age-Gate Your Groups

Step 1:

Go to Groups & Keywords.

Either select/edit an existing group or create a new one.

Step 2:

Under Advanced Features, check the Enable double opt-in box to enable a double opt-in.

Step 3:

From the drop down, select Text Birth Date to confirm.

Step 4:

Click +Add Validation button.

Step 5:

Select Age from the Validation Type drop down, select >= (older or equal to) from the next drop down, and enter the number 21 in the last box on the validation line.

Step 6:

Type in the error message. Here is an example of a compliant one that you can copy and utilize: 

  • Sorry, you are not 21 years of age or older and cannot opt-in to our program.

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