Sites fail age verification check
Found on BBC News on Saturday, 09 May 2009
Children's charities are backing a plan to make web retailers ensure young people cannot buy age-restricted goods.
The age-checking systems would have to be used if one of 20 separate products were sold including knives, alcohol, tobacco, age-restricted video games and DVDs, solvents and spray paints.
Only three of the retailers asked for the teenager to confirm his age at the time of purchase. He got round these by lying about his age.
And that's the point. Just lie about your age. Of course, you could force everybody to use a trackable ID, unique to your person, when buying something online. But seeing how many private information gets leaked and/or stolen from governmental institutions, I doubt this is a good idea. Especially since one can easily buy all those things in your old-fashioned shop down the street.