News UK Trading Standards opposes online retailers

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/06/25/uk-trading-standards-opposes-online-retailers/1

The UK Trading Standards Agency is voicing objections to online games retailers who don't check the age restrictions on games that they sell.

 

Oh that ine is easy to solve. Get ID to all citizens and allow access to the recotrds by the online companies... If the ID confirms the age then the sale is done. As it seems that parents are not doing their jobs then screw privacy.
Anyway. witht his study, are they not promoting illegal actions by actually using underage kids to do it? Is it not against some law that prohibits child labor for illegal things?

 

What a complete waste of time and effort. A child could go buy a pencil and stab someone in the neck - does that mean no one below the age of 18 can buy a pencil without an adult present? What about eating utensils? Broken glass bottles? Clingfilm?

What about children reading the newspapers or watching news broadcasts which have graphic depictions and stories about celebrities being drunk and taking drugs, people being raped, political corruption, soldiers dying in war, etc -- where does it stop? Do we restrict all people at a certain age from buying/seeing these sorts of things as their content could be deemed "harmful" to their minds?

We're generating a culture of f**king p*ssies and wimps. Either people toughen up or parents, do you job -- *parent* your children and impart proper values and explanations as to what happens in the world around them so they can understand and deal with it.

It's not *our* jobs to do it for you or suffer having our liberties restricted because *you* the parents are useless...


<sigh, sooooo tired of this issue...>

 

Wait a tick - don't you need to be over 18 to have a credit/debit card anyway? Without one, how the deuce would you purchase something online?? Someone correct me if I'm wrong...

 

Kids just take their parents' ccard from their wallet/purse and use it -- no critical pwd or security info needed that isnt present on the card

Easy.

<shrug>

 

I think you can get an Electron card when you're 16, which is like a debit card...

 

Yes - You can. They're more widely accepted now, too.

 

you can get debit cards at like 16, or maybe earlier, my memory is a little hazy. I know i had one well before i turned 18 and got a credit card anyway.
Regardless, its still yet another parental responsiblity being shifted off on to other people by busybodies.

 

and how would that actually work? kids will just talk their parents into buying it for them...

 

How dumb.

My parents don't even know how to buy things online. They rely on me (under eighteen) to make every purchase, and some of these purchases are for things that I can't legally buy.

This is like saying that it should be illegal for your parents to hand you money, and stand right behind you while you buy GTA IV, or some other age-limited product.

A few weeks ago, I was at Best Buy. I bought Counterstrike, which is rated M, and a music CD. (I was there alone). I bought everything without a problem, and right as the cashier handed me the bag, I informed him that he could be facing a prison term for what he just did. He started stuttering, (he was probably not even eighteen) and I just LOL'd and left.

 

here's a solution; stop selling games with any violence in them. god forbid someones precious snowflake actually sees any blood, hears a swear word or sees a nipple before they turn 13/16/18/whatever. besides everyone knows that violence was invented with video games and before they came around, you could leave a lion in a cage filled with gazelles and come back an hour later to find them singing Disney tunes.

 

Entrapment much?

 

Duh...so the card holder is responsible...means the parent, not the salesman.


Still, how to check on the web? If you've got access to an adults credit card, you'll probably have access to their ID as well
Heck they could even phone me, I sound like my dad on the phone since i was 14...according to his colleagues who just started blabbering away ;-)

...that was 20 years ago though

 

The thing is its not just video games you can buy under age. Its films too, hell I remember buying Fight Club online when I was 15. I'd dont see why the focus is just on video games other to promote them as the new evil.

 

That's ridiculous. It's entirely the Parent's responsibility. Whether it's a 16 year old with a Visa Electron, or a 12 year old with his Dad's MasterCard.. The parent's should know what their kids are doing.

The e-tailers should not be held accountable.

 

There is one good way to put an end to this...

Force violent game recipients to sign for the package.

That's what a few vendors here do with 18+ merchandise such as knives and the such.

Way back when I worked at a supermarket, I had 16 year old girls trying to buy beer and wine coolers for their "grandma" who was outside or at home. They presented me with a food stamp card or credit card, and I'd still flatly deny them. As such, even if somehoe people claim that their parents authorized the credit card use or whatever, it is still up to the game vendor to ensure the buyer is of an appropriate age.

There is no way to implement any sort of age check. What do porn sites or graphic imagery sites do? "Click here if you're over 18, click there and go away if you're under 18."

Require a delivery signature and it might annoy people enough to have their friends or parents buy the game for them at a brick & mortar store.

All of you saying that a parent should know what a kid is doing is right. BUT c'mon, kids don't play by the rules.

 

I've altered my stance.

The law said that it's the retailer's responsibility.

However, it SHOULD be the parent's responsibility.

 

yes thats true but here in the Us (idk Uk laws) thats called fraud and it can be felony maybe the cops should arrest the kids?...and some online retailers such as newegg have you set a password for your card number

 

It's illegal here too, but it's the kid's parent's card.. they're hardly going to rat-out their own offspring.