Twitter takes this underage drinking thing seriously, it seems. The social network is now asking any user that follows certain brewing companies to verify age requirements prior to following that person. If those age restrictions are not met in 24 hours, no following will happen.

Any company using Twitter can set up the age verification feature on Twitter by contacting the company. But, is this all really necessary? More importantly - what could this possibly accomplish? As it turns out, not much.

Just a Marketing Tactic?

So, everyone reading this post knows that it's really simple to just lie about your age when using one of those age verification forms. All you have to do is figure out when you should have been born, and plug in that data.

If the forms were really useful, companies like Twitter would only allow a few minutes to lapse between the form appearing and the actual sign up - anyone that can't remember a birthday in a few minutes is probably lying.

Why do companies even bother with age verification? For one thing, it's a legal part of owning a brewing company or other company. For another, it's a great marketing tactic. How's that? Let's use Twitter as a prime example here. Twitter is the first social network to make users go through an age verification step before following a company, and that makes all the difference.

Why It Works

Whenever a company does something first, you'll read about it in blogs like this one. Twitter has done the age verification thing first, so that means that every tech blog is going to pick up the story. It also means that brewing companies know Twitter is a safe place to post public tweets without worrying about any legal stuff.

It's a win-win situation for both parties. But, there's another side here. Why would any company want to ban people from simply viewing tweets? It's not like Twitter followers can actually drink beverage through a screen, right? So, potential followers would just be reading these tweets. Still, companies don't want to take the chance.

Responsible Marketing

It may seem silly to ask a Twitter user to go through an age verification process prior to following a company. However, this is a form of responsible marketing that companies like Twitter are trying to push. Any company selling adult goods should be held responsible for their marketing tactics, and that includes making sure that anyone following a company is age appropriate.

There are, obviously, two parties arguing this new Twitter news. Some say it's ridiculous and others think it's necessary. Where do you stand? Is this something that companies like Twitter should push, is it a marketing plan, or is it just silly?

If you do run a brewery and you'd like to set up this verification process, contact Twitter with your company information. Any users attempting to follow your account after that setup will be asked to verify their age - but that might annoy some followers.