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