A new report warns that online alcohol sales and purchasing by friends and family are creating a significant and emerging battleground in the fight against underage drinking. The report was published last month by ‘test purchasing’ company Serve Legal and Plymouth University.
Download Checked Out: the role of ID checks in controlling underage drinking [pdf]
A University of Plymouth press release highlighted:
High street retailers have become significantly better at checking the age of potential underage drinker in recent years. In 2007 the ID of teenage mystery shoppers attempting to buy alcohol from retailers or pubs was checked just over half of the time (55%). By 2010, ID was checked in more than seven in ten cases (71%).
However, the report warns that while greater vigilance by retailers has helped reduce alcohol consumption among young people, it has also prompted a shift in the way underage drinkers are getting hold of booze. Online retailers are identified as a key potential source of alcohol for underage drinkers, presenting a window of opportunity for under-age drinkers looking to circumvent the stricter alcohol policies now in place in many high street retailers.
Researchers uncovered a number of websites that sold alcohol where there was either no discernible age-check policy or a simple disclaimer noting that the consumer needed to be over 18 to complete the purchase. Even major retailers, many of which have age-related policies in place regarding on-line alcohol purchases, mainly relied on an ID check at the point of delivery, placing delivery workers in potentially confrontational situations.
The report also identifies ‘proxy-purchasing’ as a growing trend with 42% of underage drinkers claiming to have bought alcohol from friends, relatives or “someone else”. Data contained in the report found that while just 4% of underage consumers would try to buy alcohol at the till in a large supermarket, 74% would attempt to obtain alcohol from parents and 86% from older siblings or friends.
Ed Heaver, Director of Serve Legal who commissioned the report, said: “The battleground is changing in the fight against underage drinking – online retailers need to take heed of this warning and improve their age-checking procedures. Meanwhile parents and friends also need to understand the harm their proxy purchasing is doing.”
It was also reported in The Telegraph. In 2009 Alcohol Policy UK published a guest post on Alcohol home delivery services: a liberalisation too far?
RSS feed
mmmmm lets see, I as a responsible adult, took my eldest son into a pub. He was 15 at the time, I told him my thoughts on alcohol, i explained the dangers, the pit falls etc!
He drank 2 pints of best bitter, (John Smiths) which I paid for, he left with me and enjoyed the experience.
I taught him a respect for alcohol, how to behave and also that I thought he was mature enough to embibe alcohol!
My choice, as his father, not government dictat, he's turned out fine he's not an alky, works missis, kids etc!!
Laws only exist for the idiots, after all how many MP's stole from the taxpayer via expenses????
Posted by: The Mutts Nutts !!! | Friday, September 07, 2012 at 02:04 AM