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Set age restrictions on items

Who is this article for?
  • Account owners or team members with items and inventory permissions. Set permissions in Square Dashboard.
  • Square for Retail Free, Plus and Premium subscribers
  • Square Free, Plus, and Premium subscribers with advanced inventory capabilities added. Add capabilities in Square Dashboard.
  • Sellers with retail mode enabled in the Square Point of Sale app.
  • About age restrictions on items

    You can set age restrictions on items in your Item library. Use age restrictions to prompt for age verification when you sell age-restricted items from your point of sale app.

    Before you begin

    You can set, remove, and bulk edit age restrictions from your Square Dashboard. 

    When you sell age restricted items, you have three options to verify your customer’s age:

    • Manually verify age through an in-app confirmation prompt.

    • Enter your customer’s date of birth. Available with a Square for Retail Plus or Premium subscription or Square Plus or Premium subscription.

    • Scan a US or Canada drivers license or state IDs for age verification using a compatible 2D barcode scanner or camera on an iOS device. Available with a Square for Retail Plus or Premium subscription or Square Plus or Premium subscription.

    Sellers who offer age-restricted products must follow local regulations regarding age verification whenever a customer purchases one of these items, such as the case with alcohol or tobacco products.

    Age restrictions are intended to help you comply with local regulations. Block, Inc. is not responsible for the sale of age-restricted items to minors.

    Set an age restriction

    1. Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Item library.

    2. Click Create item or select an existing item.

    3. Click Set next to Age restriction.

    4. By default, you will have three options for an age restriction:

      • Buyer must be 18+

      • Buyer must be 19+

      • Buyer must be 21+

    5. Choose a minimum age restriction, then click Set

    6. You can also set up a custom age restriction. Click Custom and input your chosen age, then click Set.

    Remove an age restriction

    1. Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Item library.

    2. Click an existing item with an age restriction.

    3. Click the arrow (>) next to Age restriction.

    4. Select the age you want to remove and click Remove.

    5. Click Save.

    Bulk edit age restrictions

    1. Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Item library.

    2. Check the box next to each item you want to edit age restrictions on.

    3. Click Edit items.

    4. Click Attributes. Scroll down to find Age restriction and select it.

    5. Once the Age restriction column appears, you can select from the following options:

      • None

      • Buyer must be 18+

      • Buyer must be 19+

      • Buyer must be 21+

      • Custom

    6. Repeat adding a default buyer age restriction or custom age restriction for all items selected.

      • To apply one age restriction to all items, click on the Age restriction column header and then select an option from one of the cells. This will apply the change to the whole column.

    7. Once all changes have been made, click Update variations to save changes.

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