No to tick boxes!

At a recent age verification summit held by ID check specialists 192business, Margaret Moran MP stated that using a tick box to verify for age restricted sales is not good enough.

In the current climate of repeated media attention on teenage knife crime or alcohol abuse by youngsters, retailers are increasingly aware of their social responsibility commitments and the danger to their businesses in supplying alcohol and knives to underage customers.

To date however, online retailers have been reluctant to embrace age verification technology, and have skipped over the issue of not being able to inspect the customer to see how old they are.

The growing call for online retailers to use age check technology comes now from government and several retail industry bodies following the 192business age verification summit at Chelsea FC last week. The key contributors were the Trading Standards Institute, Margaret Moran MP, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association and the British Board of Film Classification.  Nearly 30 online retailers joined the debate including HMV, House of Fraser, Majestic Wine and play.com.

Margaret Moran MP was invited to speak but sadly unable to attend on the day, however her speech, available at http://www.192business.com/news/mp-calls-for-mandatory-age-checksprovoked much interest when read out.  Her speech focussed on how tick boxes confirming age are inadequate

“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.  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.”

Margaret also talked about how she and her parliamentary colleagues are currently pushing for mandatory age verification through their bill called the “Online Purchasing of Goods and Services” which is due for a second reading in the House of Lords later this spring.

Brandon Cook, Lead Officer for Age Restricted Sales from Trading Standards called on retailers to work more closely with Trading Standards.  Brandon stated that he accepted the identity verification solutions from suppliers such as 192business to be sufficient for due diligence and agreed with Margaret that a tick box is simply not enough to verify your customer’s age.

Recent investigations have found that out of 6 sites, 6 underage children were able to buy age restricted goods.  In one case a machete for the grand total of £1.50.  Most of these sites just had simple tick boxes to confirm the age of the individuals which are easily navigated by children.

And most importantly, how did retailers themselves view the issue of age verification?  Robin McMillan from Berry Bros. & Rudd who also presented at the 192business age verification summit talked about the importance of maintaining reputation in a family run business,

"The availability of debit and pre-paid cards to those under 18 means that payment by card can no longer be deemed sufficient evidence of a customer being of legal age when purchasing by phone or on the internet. We will therefore be exploring alternative verification methods such as those offered by 192business and others that are discreet but effective in ensuring compliance with the law."

Andy Cooke, from BBFC.online, the British Board of Film Classification’s Scheme for the labelling and age-controlled sale of digital video, said:

“Our members must offer the same standard of reassurance to the public as they do in the ‘bricks and mortar’ world when marketing ‘12’ ‘15’ or ‘18’ rated products with our symbols on them. Age restricted products must be restricted by more than self-verification. Independent age verification is an essential part of that standard”

Michelle Dixon, Age Verification Specialist, at 192business presented on all the different legislation that affects retailers selling age restricted goods, and a copy of this can be found here www.192business.com/verification/age.

Michelle says “Retailers selling age restricted products should be aware that the laws of the land still apply for online transactions.  Age checks are easily implemented into the transaction process and will not effect the customer experience but ensure the retailer is doing all that is reasonably possible to verify an individual’s age”.

Enquiries

For more information on this press release please contact:

Michelle Dixon, Marketing Manager at 192business.com

020 7909 2352 or email enquiries@192.com