Want to follow Bud Light on Twitter to see hundreds of pictures of carefully arranged beer bottles? Then you'll need to convince the microblogging service that you're over the legal drinking age in your home country. As outlined on its blog, Twitter has now introduced an age-screening system that it says will help alcohol brands "safely grow their of-age network."

Users of Twitter.com and its iOS and Android apps trying to follow specific brands — the first partners include Jim Beam, Knob Creek, and Bacardi — will receive a direct message that directs them to an age gate and gives them 24 hours to provide the relevant information. As they fill in their birthdays, Twitter cross-checks them against national drinking age limits, and either revokes access or allows the follow request.





Users trying to follow alcohol brands will be asked to enter their date of birth within 24 hours

Twitter says it won't remember your date of birth, but, as Venturebeat points out, the new age gate's fine print suggests your data may be shared with third parties for marketing purposes. Twitter says it "may identify the number of users within an age range that follow a specific account or types of accounts." Marketers receiving this information may find themselves with an apparent glut of 110-year-old Bud Light fans: as with most internet age gates, there's currently nothing to stop Twitter users from providing a fake birthday to fool the system.