Last updated on November 1st, 2022 at 01:36 pm
Age Gate Verification Plugins
Did you know that as of 2017, website age verifications aren’t actually legally required?
However, if a minor lies about their age to access your site, they may face criminal and federal charges. This means that installing an age verification plugin may actually lead to legal punishment.
In this post, we will not discuss the controversy surrounding minors’ access to information about alcohol, which is touched upon in this quote,
“These proponents believe that the less youth know about or are exposed to alcohol subject matters, the less that youth are harmed by alcohol. But this belief is heavily debatable,” explained Marvin Cable, University of Massachusetts https://www.huffpost.com/entry/liquor-website-age-verification_n_59c3b549e4b06f93538cdd18
It is up to you, as the owner of the site, whether or not you want an age verification plugin. If you do, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve tested a few and here is what we discovered.
AGE GATE:
- Allows you to pick which content you want the age verification popup to be used on.
- Easy functionality
- You can use drop down boxes, yes or no, or input fields.
- Rechallenge, in case the age is entered incorrectly
- Page redirect for when a minor’s age is entered
- The appearance is editable, but you can’t change the font
- Custom styling with CSS
- SEO Friendly – common bots and crawlers are omitted from age checks
- Remember Me box
Dispensary Age Verification
- Pro version gives you full control over the design of your age gate via the WordPress Customizer
- Free version gives you minimal control over the design
- No set-up, becomes active as soon as you activate the plugin
AgeVerify
- Lots of customization options and templates, including custom text and video backgrounds
- Free version has ads
- Custom cookie expirations
- Custom redirect URLs
Agy
- Lots of customization options in the free version
- Custom cookie expirations
- Custom redirect URLs
- Works well with WooCommerce
Different plugins have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to age verification. From my own experience, narrowing it down to my favorite has proven challenging. I liked the features that the free versions offered. It came down to the design options that Dispensary Age Verification offered, despite having ads. Keep in mind, however, that it is entirely up to you whether you use an age gate.
