Businesses such as restaurants sometimes exclude children under the age of 18, for example, from their premises. Businesses generally have the right to do so unless there is a local ordinance, for example, that prohibits restaurants from excluding children.

Restaurant policies that exclude children—sometimes referred to as prohibitions or bans on children by opponents of the policies—may be motivated by the restaurant’s concerns about noise, safety, or wanting to create a quiet, intimate setting for their customers.

Opponents of restaurant policies excluding children may claim the policies are discriminatory, but federal laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) only prohibit discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, or disability (protected classifications). Age is not a protected class in this context. Age is a protected class in the employment context and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits age discrimination against employees and job applicants over age 40—but that law has no bearing on a business’s right to exclude customers based on their age.

In Georgia, businesses, including restaurants, generally have the right to exclude children under the age of 18 from their premises unless there is a specific local ordinance that prohibits such exclusion. The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protect against discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, or disability, but do not include age as a protected class for customers. Therefore, excluding children from a restaurant does not violate these federal anti-discrimination laws. It's important to note that while the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) protects individuals over the age of 40 from employment discrimination, it does not apply to the treatment of customers. As such, unless there is a state or local law in Georgia that specifically prohibits age-based exclusion of customers, restaurants may implement policies that exclude children for various reasons, such as maintaining a certain atmosphere, without running afoul of federal anti-discrimination laws.