Buddy Media and Twitter launch age screening

Earlier this year, recently-acquired social media marketing firm Vitrue launched a 'Twitter Gate' tool that allows brands to protect their Twitter feeds from being seen by underage followers.

The primary target of the company's offering was, not surprising, alcohol brands, many of which have been part of a big self-regulation push.

Now, Twitter is getting in on the act directly through a partnership with another recently-acquired social media marketing player, Buddy Media.

TechCrunch's Josh Constine explains that Twitter worked with Buddy Media to develop its 'Age Screening' service, which allows brands to perform age verification directly on the Twitter site.

That, arguably, gives 'Age Screening' a distinct advantage over Vitrue's 'Twitter Gate', which requires the user to go off-site to complete the age verification process.

Twitter says it will not do its own vetting of the information supplied by users; it's trusting that they're telling the truth about their dates of birth. Once users have provided that information, Twitter will allow them to follow other adult brands automatically.

Needless to say, Twitter's move is clearly designed to help make its service a friendlier place for the brands it's increasingly pitching ad deals to. Alcohol and pharmaceutical companies are some of the biggest spenders when it comes to ads, but for obvious reasons they must tread carefully on social services like Twitter.

With 'Age Screening' in place, Twitter may be able to more easily convince them that Twitter is a viable platform on which to invest.