Putting in place further safeguards to prevent minors seeing alcohol marketing

Since 2018, IARD has been working in partnership with digital platforms to enhance responsibility standards for alcohol-related marketing online in support of UN goals to reduce harmful drinking. This pioneering partnership aims to build confidence in age-assurance systems online and to help ensure online alcohol advertising is directed only at adults who wish to engage with drinks brands.

Key outcomes include:

• Hundreds of thousands of influencers around the world can now age-gate posts.
• Leading global marketing and advertising agencies are signed-up to the first-ever global standards for influencer marketing.
• Millions of advertisers can age-gate online marketing on digital platforms.
• IARD members are on track to reach 95% compliance with Digital Guiding Principles by end of 2024. The five safeguards on brand channels include: age-affirmation mechanism, transparency, user generated content policy, forward advice notice, responsible drinking message.

In 2024, the partnership expanded and made new commitments to further enhance online safeguards, where necessary, to prevent those under legal purchase age inadvertently seeing alcohol advertising online and to provide confidence that age-assurance methodologies on digital platforms are robust by 2025.

As part of this unique collaboration, digital companies have shared transparency reports that summarise the platform-specific safeguards particularly the policies and practices they have in place to assure age.  [Reports: Google, Meta, Pinterest, Snap, TikTok,  X]