Age assurance statement.

What happens when you meet an Age Gate

When a site or app places a BotShield Age Gate, you prove you are there with your own passkey, and your phone answers one question from the age your Apple or Google account already holds: are you over 13, 18 or 21. The site receives that answer — Over 18 Verified, for example — and how it was confirmed: declared by you, declared by a parent, or confirmed by your platform with a scrutinized method, such as a government ID or a payment card. The site never receives your date of birth, your age, or a document, and neither do we.

What we refuse

We refuse what the law would not accept. A self-declared age never passes an Age Gate. A parent’s declaration passes only the 13 gate. The 18 and 21 gates pass only on the platform's confirmed grade. Sites can set their bar higher than ours; they cannot set it lower.

If your platform cannot supply a verified age — an older operating system, a region where the check is not offered, or a declined prompt — the gate returns Unavailable, and the site decides what to do next, such as offering another method.

What this is, and what it is not

What this is: a method a site can use to support its age-assurance obligations, with a signed, dated record for every check. Where the platform confirmed the age with a scrutinized method, it is one of the strongest signals a site can start from; some laws name a check of their own, and there the Age Gate is the pre-screen, not the sale.

What this is not: a certification, a guarantee, or a substitute for the site’s own assessment of its obligations. Where a law requires more than your platform’s signal provides, the site must add it, and we say so in our terms. Online vape and tobacco sales are one example: federal law requires a government-source database check and a signature with photo ID at delivery, so there the Age Gate is a pre-screen at the door and the sale’s check is the seller’s.

What a site gets for its own record

Regulators ask a site to show what its age check means and how it is watched, not to name a vendor. Every Age Gate gives a site that record: what each confirmation level means and which gates it passes; every path to Unavailable and that the decision after one is the site’s; that the passkey binds the answer to the person present on the device, not to the device; the gate’s pass and Unavailable counts in its Console; and the ability to pause the gate at once. The site writes its own assessment before going live and keeps it with this statement.

What we keep, and what we never keep

We keep when a check happened and what it answered. We never keep how old you are. The platform’s check stayed on the platform; we kept the shape of its answer, not its content. Our privacy policy lists everything else.

Changes

We date and version this statement. When a law or a platform changes what an age signal means, this page changes with it, and sites that place an Age Gate are told in the Console.