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UK Trading Standards opposes online retailers
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 25th June 2008
Online retailers face large fines and prison terms if they sell age restricted games to minors.
According to the BBC, an investigation lead by the Trading Standards Agency found that 90 percent of online retailers did not question the age of customers or that customers were easily able to circumvent what methods were in place.
The investigation involved volunteers between the age of 12 and 16 who worked with the Welsh authorities to try and expose the online shops which were in breach of the law by purchasing products rated for 18s or older.
The volunteers were successful in nearly every attempt to buy age-restricted games over the internet, buying 38 out of 40 items without problem.
Brandon Cook of the Trading Standards body warned that although parents and guardians have an important role to play, traders too have "a responsibility to make sure they have methods in place to avoid breaking the law by making under-age sales".
He added, "If traders cannot be sure the person they are selling to is over 18, then they should not be selling," and reminded traders that they face large fines and six month prison terms.
How can online retailers fulfill their job of checking ages with certainty? Tell us your ideas in the forums.
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Comments (37)Stats: 0.174 seconds
Anyway. witht his study, are they not promoting illegal actions by actually using underage kids to do it? Is it not against some law that prohibits child labor for illegal things?
What about children reading the newspapers or watching news broadcasts which have graphic depictions and stories about celebrities being drunk and taking drugs, people being raped, political corruption, soldiers dying in war, etc -- where does it stop? Do we restrict all people at a certain age from buying/seeing these sorts of things as their content could be deemed "harmful" to their minds?
We're generating a culture of f**king p*ssies and wimps. Either people toughen up or parents, do you job -- *parent* your children and impart proper values and explanations as to what happens in the world around them so they can understand and deal with it.
It's not *our* jobs to do it for you or suffer having our liberties restricted because *you* the parents are useless...
<sigh, sooooo tired of this issue...>
Kids just take their parents' ccard from their wallet/purse and use it -- no critical pwd or security info needed that isnt present on the card
Easy.
<shrug>
Yes - You can. They're more widely accepted now, too.
Regardless, its still yet another parental responsiblity being shifted off on to other people by busybodies.
My parents don't even know how to buy things online. They rely on me (under eighteen) to make every purchase, and some of these purchases are for things that I can't legally buy.
This is like saying that it should be illegal for your parents to hand you money, and stand right behind you while you buy GTA IV, or some other age-limited product.
A few weeks ago, I was at Best Buy. I bought Counterstrike, which is rated M, and a music CD. (I was there alone). I bought everything without a problem, and right as the cashier handed me the bag, I informed him that he could be facing a prison term for what he just did. He started stuttering, (he was probably not even eighteen) and I just LOL'd and left.
Duh...so the card holder is responsible...means the parent, not the salesman.
Still, how to check on the web? If you've got access to an adults credit card, you'll probably have access to their ID as well :D
Heck they could even phone me, I sound like my dad on the phone since i was 14...according to his colleagues who just started blabbering away ;-)
...that was 20 years ago though
The e-tailers should not be held accountable.
Force violent game recipients to sign for the package.
That's what a few vendors here do with 18+ merchandise such as knives and the such.
Way back when I worked at a supermarket, I had 16 year old girls trying to buy beer and wine coolers for their "grandma" who was outside or at home. They presented me with a food stamp card or credit card, and I'd still flatly deny them. As such, even if somehoe people claim that their parents authorized the credit card use or whatever, it is still up to the game vendor to ensure the buyer is of an appropriate age.
There is no way to implement any sort of age check. What do porn sites or graphic imagery sites do? "Click here if you're over 18, click there and go away if you're under 18."
Require a delivery signature and it might annoy people enough to have their friends or parents buy the game for them at a brick & mortar store.
All of you saying that a parent should know what a kid is doing is right. BUT c'mon, kids don't play by the rules.
The law said that it's the retailer's responsibility.
However, it SHOULD be the parent's responsibility.
yes thats true but here in the Us (idk Uk laws) thats called fraud and it can be felony maybe the cops should arrest the kids?...and some online retailers such as newegg have you set a password for your card number
It's illegal here too, but it's the kid's parent's card.. they're hardly going to rat-out their own offspring.
Yes but a minor using their parents' ccard in an online transaction is rarely going to be prosecuted -- more of a reprimand for the guardians NOT monitoring their child's actions/behaviours.
<sigh> No, no - I *meant* in an online situation -- I didnt mean little Timmy walked up to the BestBuy or HMV shop with Papa's ccard - Of course in that situation it shouldnt work as you're right, it isn't 20 years ago when that may have worked.
I meant they purchased the goods online, which is where this whole debate was originating from -- the fact that retailers don't have online security measures to ensure the buyer IS the age their ccard says they are.
The whole issue is that minors can nab their parents' ccard, hop onto the interwebbtubes and buy GTA IV without any form of age check as the card itself IS the age check and the idiot law makers want to reolve the issue by implementing either stricter guidelines on games or the content and types of content in those games.
All because parents arent instructing their children on what is and isn't acceptable behaviour at an early age, and are instead leaving it to the govt, media and other non-family related officials to make the decisions. Which invariably ends up withus getting fuct over "for the sake of the children".
F*ckin' breeders...
also couldn't you just do it through a supermarket too? order loads of violet games films and alcohol and when they deliver it just say, my parents are out if they ask. :)
It should be down to the parents to decide whether their children are mature enough/ready to see things like that.
Rather than the responsibility being laid on the retailer to make sure no one under 18 buys it.
Although, if we had that system, I'm not sure how well most parents would make such decisions. Actually.. I'm pretty sure a lot of them would be very bad at it.
And who exactly are they going to lock up if something is sold? Presumably in a normal shop it is down to whoever sold the thing so that means they are going to be locking up servers?!
(Talking to UKTS)
Parents need to step up to the f***in plate and be aware of what their kids are doing. However, I don't believe that you necessarily have to be 18 to play a rated M game, but in that case the parents need to make the judgement call on whether their kid is mature enough to play the game.
It is not games that lawmakers really need to focus on right now. The most disturbing trend is the social networking sites that young people are using these days. Our local Public Broadcasting Station had a very eye-opening special on this. The online bullying, humiliation, leading to real world retaliation. Kids giving out personal info without really thinking/knowing about the potential consequences. Predators posing as young people on these sites. These issues are far more important than a 16yr old buying a rated M game.
True evil is out there, but games and movies don't cause it.
Paypal.
If they want to employ some system of age verification onto online retailers, then just enact some age validation system against the Paypal account holder.
I coudnt agree less, why? lots of stuff cant be bought anymore in retail shops, often buying online is the only way, so you would completly ban certain products for everyone.
yes and there is the main problem, some do enforce age limits, but the shop across the street wont.. point is, companies dont like to turn down money so many shops rather risk the fine than turning down a customer.
That's kind of the solution UKTS seems to want though :p Save the kids etc
And thats how it should be, i don't know how most of these kids get away with it.
Just everything.
Even air. Then there will be no one to make, buy or sell the games. Problem solved.
My god! I'm not the only one! WooHoo!
What happened to Freedom of Choice? Responsibility, Respect?
Soon you will need a License to buy anything other than BubbleBobble.
I pity my Daughter, she'll grow up thinking this kind of Needless Restriction is Normal.