This afternoon Facebook posted on their developer blog that restrictions from placing alcohol content on applications have been removed. All alcohol content must now be displayed within a “Demographic Restriction” block by January 6, 2009. How Facebook will police this I’m not quite sure but my guess is that their largest concern is about branded applications from alcohol companies as well as gifting applications.
One additional feature that Facebook has provided developers with is the ability to provide separate age restrictions based on the location. This means age restrictions in one country can be different in another country. According to the post by Nick Gianos, it sounds like Facebook is placing the content responsibility on developers:
Please note that, as the developer, you are responsible for ensuring that your application complies with all legal requirements in the country where it is viewable.
It would be extremely difficult for Facebook to police the thousands of applications currently on the platform. While this isn’t really a massive change, from a business standpoint I would guess that we are going to quickly begin seeing much more content which is alcohol related. For now, developers can celebrate the end of Facebook’s prohibition with a drink!
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And on that note I think I will go and have a drink.
Comment by Michael McGimpsey — November 7, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
Cheers!
Comment by Jesse Thomas — November 8, 2008 @ 6:28 am
Right on!
Comment by Dennis Yu — November 8, 2008 @ 12:46 pm