Just about every online business sector outside of financial services and gambling is paying lip service to the legal requirements that prohibit the sale of certain goods and services to under-age persons.  The table below summarises the list of age-restricted goods and the applicable age stipulated under the various laws:

Restricted Goods	Applicable Age
Alcohol	18 yrs +
Cigarettes and tobacco	18 yrs +
Fireworks	18yrs +
Solvents / gas lighter refills	18yrs +
Spray paints	16 yrs +
National Lottery / scratchcards	16 yrs +
Knives	18 yrs +
Crossbows	17 yrs +
Gambling	18 yrs +
Adult entertainment	18yrs +
DVDs / videos / computer games	to age 12, 15 or 18

Bricks and mortar retailers must take steps to ensure that the person in front of them making a purchase of such products, is of the required age and enforcement mechanisms are in place through local Trading Standards offices.

But the same disciplines don’t seem to apply online.  Why not?  And what can be done to bring the online environment at least to the same standard of diligence that we expect from our High Street shopkeepers?

Right now thousands of online merchants and shops seem to believe that it is sufficient simply to require a customer to verify that they are over 18 by ticking a box on a webpage.  Job done – or is it?

Consider the off-line experience and compare it with the tick box approach.  In the real world, a shop assistant who is required to verify the age of a customer will ask for a means of authoritative verification – various identity cards are in issue which are acceptable to most retailers.  Some cards show a date of birth and are more useful than those that state that the holder is over 18, and all cards carry a photograph.

Before the transaction is concluded and before the goods are handed over, an eye-ball to eye ball exchange and gentle interrogation takes place.  This is the process the law expects and as citizens and parents, this is the process that we have rightly come to expect of our retailers.

The online tick box deployed by thousands of retailers is not fit for purpose.  And we’re not talking about the distribution of alcohol and cigarettes from an online garage of questionable ownership – even the BBC and major retailers consider this method to be sufficient!

The industry needs to get its act together and put in steps on a voluntary basis if they wish a statutory regime to be avoided.

Already, legislators are starting to address this issue. Margaret Moran MP introduced a Bill in January 2008 which attempted to highlight the issue and provide specifically targeted legislation aimed at online age verification.  The Bill got no further than its first reading and indeed, I would argue, did not go far enough in its requirements for online businesses to “take all reasonable steps to determine that the person meets the specifications of the relevant age restriction”.  Reasonable steps are a subjective judgement by the business and it is always difficult to prove in a court that such steps were not taken. 

A clear framework for an Age Verification standard needs to be established by the industry and suppliers meeting the standard must be accredited. Without self regulation, it is clear that legislation is the likely next step.

So what is pressuring Government to legislate now?

For a start, the Home Office has a remit to reduce harm to citizens in the UK.  Do we really want to leave the online back-door open such that our children and young people can with ease purchase alcohol, cigarettes, hunting knives, cross-bows and x-rated porn movies and have them delivered to their door?  I don’t think so.

But what has changed to make this issue more of a reality today than it might have been 12 months ago?

One simple answer pops out – the introduction and growth of pre-paid debit and credit cards pushed to children and young persons.  The banks have seen this as a new lucrative market.  Indeed, in the current climate, they will be under new pressure to mine the teen market for all its worth.  When these cards are used online they are indistinguishable from those issued to over 18s.

In the recent past, credit cards were issued only to persons of 18 years or over.  Online businesses, with some degree of justification, could assume that the holder of a credit card was over 18 and coupled with a tick in the box, this “process” would provide the online retailer with the protection it needed to approve the sale of the age-restricted product.

This “defence” is now dead and buried.  Indeed, continued reliance on this methodology displays a casual recklessness in online retailers approach to age verification.

The count-down to legislative action on age verification online has begun!

Online businesses in the UK and EU have an opportunity now to introduce additional online age verification and identity checks to ensure that as far as possible, the person making the purchase is of the appropriate age.

So what’s next?

Failure by online merchants now to put in place properly adequate measures by using readily available technologies and solutions, will ultimately force the Government’s hand and legislation will be the outcome.

But it’s not all doom and gloom for online retailers!  There is a clear return on investment argument which supports the introduction of age verification and identity checking to the online proposition.  Counter fraud services like those implemented by SecureTrading will help drive out fraud, increase profitability and can be used as a superb marketing tool by demonstrating that online businesses are taking their customers’ security seriously and taking their corporate and social responsibilities equally seriously.

The message for online business is act now before legislation is forced upon you!

About SecureTrading

SecureTrading is the UK's leading independent Internet Payment Service Provider (PSP), with more than 10 years of experience providing secure real-time payment processing for businesses operating online. SecureTrading is trusted by many of the UK’s best-known brands and offers a diverse range of innovative payment services that are tailored to meet the precise needs of its customers.

Using SecureTrading’s leading-edge products and systems, companies can accept all credit and debit cards along with alternative payment methods such as PayPal and Ukash. Furthermore, these innovative technology solutions are reliable, scaleable and easy to integrate with any e-commerce site, working seamlessly with shopping cart software and customer applications.

SecureTrading has the most comprehensive suite of counter-fraud services available, so businesses can make correct decisions before shipping goods or allowing access to services. In addition, the company is fully PCIDSS Level 1 accredited and incorporates 2048-bit encryption, 3-D Secure and AVS Security Code into its payment processing systems.  The launch of SecureTrading’s new suite of counter-fraud products, SecureTrading Identity Check and SecureTrading Fraud Score, makes SecureTrading’s Payment System one of the safest ways to trade online.

For further information please contact:

John Lyons, Chief Security Officer at SecureTrading on: john.lyons@uc.com
Lizzie Woolley, Weston Partnership, Tel:  07881 923 530

See our website at www.securetrading.com