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MP calls for mandatory age checks
As a vehement campaigner for child safety on the internet, and MP for Luton South, Margaret Moran agreed to address 192business’ Prove ID seminar for retailers of age restricted goods.
Her speech included a background to her campaigning as well as her rationale behind the Online Purchasing (Age Verification) Bill. It also drew attention to self declaration for age verification:
“The public is increasingly concerned about the availability of knives and alcohol to under-age youngsters, yet there are most often no age-checks online. Currently many online retailers simply ask customers to confirm their age by ticking a box and take no other measures to verify whether the person meets the age criteria.
This is a loophole that I felt urgently needed to be addressed.”
A full transcript of Margaret Moran's speech can be found below:
Age Sensitive Seminar, 11th March
- A history of campaigning in online child protection
- The rationale behind the Online Purchasing (Age Verification) Bill
- The problem with self regulation
- What is happening next?
I have campaigned long and hard on online child protection.
In 2005 My Ten Minute Bill on Child Pornography looked to require every internet service provider to declare in its company's annual reports and on its corporate website whether it is actively pursuing measures intended to prevent its customers from obtaining access to known child pornography websites.
But I also recognize the immense power of the web as a source of education, skills and plain fun for youngsters, and as a tool for communication between young people and politicians like me. In November 2007 I did an online exercise called “Kidspeak”, which gave children and young people who had suffered because of domestic violence the opportunity to talk about their experiences in a safe environment.
We must not frighten people off technology, which has huge potential for good in so many ways, but we must help people to guide young users, and prevent abusers from taking advantage of the openness and freedom of the internet.
The public is increasingly concerned about the availability of knives and alcohol to under-age youngsters, yet there are most often no age-checks online. Currently many online retailers simply ask customers to confirm their age by ticking a box and take no other measures to verify whether the person meets the age criteria.
This is a loophole that I felt urgently needed to be addressed.
The rationale behind the Online Purchasing (Age Verification) Bill
In January 2008 I put forward a Ten Minute Rule Bill on “Online Purchasing of Goods and Services (Age Verification)”, which was was given a first reading in the Commons in January.
It was supported by Sally Keeble, Kali Mountford, Judy Mallaber, Barbara Keeley, Fiona Mactaggart, Ian Stewart, Martin Salter, Lynda Waltho and Linda Gilroy.
The Bill would require online retailers and those who facilitate the sale of goods and services online to abide by the laws of the land in respect of age-restrictions.
Private Members' Bills rarely become law and are often used primarily to raise awareness of an issue. In the case of this Bill the hope is that the Government will pick up the issue, either for further Executive action or, if any strengthening of the law is needed, to incorporate it into a Government Bill.
The Bill is intended to encourage the online retail industry to take positive steps to ensure age compliance and to close the loophole which is allowing youngsters to buy age-restricted goods over the internet which they could never get from a shop on the High Street.
I am not someone who believes in legislation for legislation’s sake. Without awareness and education, regulation is not enough to tackle some of the big problems we face today with increasing connectivity, particularly in regards to protecting our children.
Before the internet, retailers had a comparatively easy job when it came to the sale of alcohol, tobacco, gambling, solvents and so on. If there was any doubt about a person's age, they could ask for identification and, if necessary, decline to sell. The consequences of getting it wrong could be dire. A bookie or a landlord could be fined, lose their licence or worse; a cinema or nightclub could be closed down.
Now gambling, alcohol and of course pornography can now be obtained online. Yet there are still most often no checks online, and children can very easily bypass the age-restrictions that exist in the offline world by jumping onto a computer.
Sadly, self-regulation is not working. It is clear that very few online retailers have procedures or software in place to prevent the sale of age-restricted goods to children.
Banks routinely provide legal minors, in some cases children as young as 11, with Solo or Visa Electron cards that can be used to make payments on the internet and are widely accepted on every kind of website.
There are also pre-paid, or stored value cards, available which can be bought as gifts and given to people of any age, or even bought over the counter for cash. Such cards can allow children to get to places on the internet or buy goods and services online that they would never be able to access in real life.
Unlike the British high street, where proving your age is mandatory when buying alcohol or pornography, there are currently no laws forcing British online retailers to secure proof that customers are over 18.
Many online retailers simply ask customers to confirm their age by ticking a box and take no other measures to verify whether the person meets the age criteria. This is clearly inadequate.
The exception to that rule is online gambling, where companies are required to have proof of someone's age before allowing them to bet.
In the case of age restrictions on gambling, it took further action to push gambling sites into complying. However the gambling industry only had a single age restriction to take into account, but there are more complicated age restrictions in other industries. One of the ways that the age restrictions for gambling was a success was that the Advertising Standards Authority ensured that no British advertising company will accept a contract for a gambling site that doesn’t comply with the age verification conditions. Even if that website is international, the advertising agency has to ascertain if that company fits with the criteria – if it does not they will refuse to advertise that site.
Nobody compels anyone to sell age-restricted goods or services over the internet; they choose to do so. Therefore, unless companies can be sure they are selling goods legally, they should stop selling them online altogether.
There are technological solutions to age verification, and companies are providing online age and ID check solutions in order to screen minors.
We need to encourage the responsible retailers to set the goal posts high so that others working online emulate good practices not bad.
Self-regulation is a bargain. It is a bargain between, on the one hand, politicians and Governments, to stay out of an area of public concern, in return for, on the other, good faith efforts being made by industry to deal with the causes of those concerns. That is a great idea. The problem with it is that industry is not a cohesive single group that always acts in a co-ordinated and disciplined way. In fact if it was like that we might start worrying instead about cartels and restrictive practices or abuse of monopoly power or oligarchical powers.
Take social networking as a clear example. I doubt there is an MP in Westminster who has not had at least one complaint made to them, probably like me they will have had many more, about YouTube`s persistent and wilful strategy to avoid taking responsibility for what happens on its site. They do not police their site looking for bad material - material which breaches their terms and conditions - yet other social networking sites do. MySpace does. If MySpace can, and does, then why doesn`t YouTube?
We cannot have two internet industries: one composed of good guys, one made up of people who clearly don`t give a damn. Governments and politicians exist to protect the public interest - to protect those who are powerless to influence big, rich corporations like Google. Politicians and Governments around the world are, like me, beginning to feel much more confident about intervening in these debates.
We are no longer willing to opt out, to say "Its all too difficult, it’s all so global and so technical, I am powerless." Well we’re not powerless. In the end, in a democracy, the people will have their way. The people will find a way. We elect Governments to deal with powerful vested interests, not collapse in front of them and give them a free hand to do whatever they feel like. Societies do not exist simply to allow companies to develop and market new products. The sooner some executives in the high tech industries realise that, the better it will be for all concerned.
The Age Verification Bill was introduced in the House of Lords by Baroness Doreen Massey in January.
We are currently waiting for a date for the 2nd Reading. The key difference between the Commons and the Lords, however, is that if the Bill is given a 2nd Reading then there will be a full debate and the Government will have to come to the Despatch Box and reply. No one expects the Government to say that they are opposed to the Bill.
The Bill is exactly the same as the one I proposed, meaning that it delegates powers to the Secretary of State to make regulations. In this way it is closely following the path taken when dealing with online gambling.
It is clear that there is wide ranging support for the Bill. I put together a summit at the Houses of Parliament in December which brought together fellow parliamentarians, retailers, representatives of trading standards, home office officials, passport services, children’s charities and trade associations, each determined to make the internet safe and a force for good practice.
The participants raised some important points.
One of the comments in the public meeting was that online retailers may be reluctant to take the first step as there is a perception that it may harm business by putting up barriers to the consumer. Only in a level playing field might it make sense. This is where government can step in, by creating a level playing field for business where everyone is asked to take adequate steps
I don’t believe that online retailers want to go out of their way to sell restricted goods to underage consumers.
The Trading Standards Officer for Greenwich Council, Maureen O’Mara, spoke at the meeting.
I’m pleased to say that Trading Standards Officers from around the country are beginning to get very active in this field, particularly in relation to the sale of knives.
So I welcome events like these that encourage debate of this important issue and brings together retailers with solution providers and public officials. This way we can ensure a proper and lasting solution to this that everyone is pleased with and that provides the protection that is needed.”
16th March 2009
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