Effective age verification systems for shop
owners to enhance compliance with the
legal 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