effective age verification systems for shop owners to enhance

Effective age verification systems for shop owners to enhance compliance with thelegal age limit(s)Dr. Joris van Hoof, University of Twente (Netherlands)

MY BACKGROUND

� PhD dissertation on adolescents and alcohol use (2010)

� From 2007 many studies on compliance with legal age limits for age restricted products

� Alcohol (about 10k mystery shopping visits). Together

with STAP this method was developed in NL.

� Detrimental media (about 2k)

� Tobacco and gambling products (about 3k)

� Medicines (about 2k)

� 2013 – 2016 VENI laureate Dutch Science Foundation NWO on compliance with age limits

LEGISLATION IN THE NETHERLANDS

� Alcohol Licensing and Catering Act (art 20)

� It is not allowed to sell alcohol containing beverages unless it has been validated that the customer is 18 years old

� Age verification is not allowed if someone is unmistakably older than 18

� For age verification a legal ID document should be used (passport, ID card, drivers license)

SYSTEMS / TOOLS TO HELP VENDORS

� Creating awareness / support among the public: information campaigns

� Training programs for vendors (pre-sales)

� Trigger vendors to ask ID (sales)

� Help vendors to calculate age (sales)

� ID swipers (sales)

� Age print cards (sales)

� Ageviewers remote age verification (sales)

INFORMATION CAMPAIGNS IN SHOPS

SYSTEMS / TOOLS TO HELP VENDORS

� Creating awareness / support among the public: information campaigns

� Training programs for vendors (pre-sales)

� Trigger vendors to ask ID (sales)

� Help vendors to calculate age (sales)

� ID swipers (sales)

� Age print cards (sales)

� Ageviewers remote age verification (sales)

TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR VENDORS

� Aimed at training (future) vendors to determine who to ask and getting routine in the procedures

� Offered by brand chain organization of supermarkets and catering industry

SYSTEMS / TOOLS TO HELP VENDORS

� Creating awareness / support among the public: information campaigns

� Training programs for vendors (pre-sales)

� Trigger vendors to ask ID (sales)

� Help vendors to calculate age (sales)

� ID swipers (sales)

� Age print cards (sales)

� Ageviewers remote age verification (sales)

TRIGGER VENDORS TO ASK ID

� Cash registers that beep when an age restricted product is scanned

� In combination with informing the public as the customer sees a message “possibly, the cashier will ask your identification document”

� In combination with helping vendors to calculate the customer’s age (based on date of birth), this date of birth needs to be entered (always, also for older customers)

� But also compliance checks making use of mystery shopping

SYSTEMS / TOOLS TO HELP VENDORS

� Creating awareness / support among the public: information campaigns

� Training programs for vendors (pre-sales)

� Trigger vendors to ask ID (sales)

� Help vendors to calculate age (sales)

� ID swipers (sales)

� Age print cards (sales)

� Ageviewers remote age verification (sales)

HELP VENDORS TO CALCULATE AGE

� “Don’t sell alcohol if the customer is born after March 15, 1994”

SYSTEMS / TOOLS TO HELP VENDORS

� Creating awareness / support among the public: information campaigns

� Training programs for vendors (pre-sales)

� Trigger vendors to ask ID (sales)

� Help vendors to calculate age (sales)

� ID swipers (sales)

� Age print cards (sales)

� Ageviewers remote age verification (sales)

ID SWIPERS

Leeftijdscontrole met behulp van de ID-swiper (instructievideo).mp4

SYSTEMS / TOOLS TO HELP VENDORS

� Creating awareness / support among the public: information campaigns

� Training programs for vendors (pre-sales)

� Trigger vendors to ask ID (sales)

� Help vendors to calculate age (sales)

� ID swipers (sales)

� Age print cards (sales)

� Ageviewers remote age verification (sales)

AGE PRINT CARDS

SYSTEMS / TOOLS TO HELP VENDORS

� Creating awareness / support among the public: information campaigns

� Training programs for vendors (pre-sales)

� Trigger vendors to ask ID (sales)

� Help vendors to calculate age (sales)

� ID swipers (sales)

� Age print cards (sales)

� Ageviewers remote age verification (sales)

AGEVIEWERS REMOTE AGE VERIFICATION

hempromo41.flv

SYSTEMS / TOOLS TO HELP VENDORS

� Creating awareness / support among the public: information campaigns

� Training programs for vendors (pre-sales)

� Trigger vendors to ask ID (sales)

� Help vendors to calculate age (sales)

� ID swipers (sales)

� Age print cards (sales)

� Ageviewers remote age verification (sales)

SYSTEMS / TOOLS TO HELP VENDORS

� Continuum: degrees of freedom for the vendor and customer

� Choice of system should be in line with national legislation(s). Not only on alcohol sales, but also privacy issues, legal issues and working environments

� Costs – benefits analyses, also including costs of enforcement, police actions, alcohol intoxication, addiction treatment.

FURTHER READING SUGGESTIONS / DISCUSSION

� Van Hoof, J. J., Gosselt, J. F. (2013). Underage Alcohol Sales—It Only Takes a

Minute: A New Approach to Underage Alcohol Availability. Journal of Studies on

Alcohol and Drugs, 74, 423–427.

� Van Hoof, J. J., Gosselt, J. F., Baas, N., & De Jong, M. D. T. (2012). Improving shop

floor compliance with age restrictions for alcohol sales: Effectiveness of a feedback

letter intervention. European Journal of Public Health, 22, 737-742.

� Gosselt, J. F., Van Hoof, J. J., Baas, N., & De Jong, M. D. T. (2011). Effects of a

national information campaign on compliance with age restrictions for alcohol sales.

Journal of Adolescent Health, 49, 97-98.

� Van Hoof, J. J., Gosselt, J. F., & De Jong, M. D. T. (2010). Shop floor compliance

with age restrictions for tobacco sales: Remote versus in-store age verification.

Journal of Adolescent Health, 46 (2), 197-199.

� Thanks for your attention: J.J.vanHoof@utwente.nl