Online Purchasing of Goods and Services (Age Verification)...
Date Published 23/01/2008 - Click here for more recent news
It's not every day that we in EASIserv.com towers are to be found trawling through the pages of Hansard...but yesterday we got a sniff of something afoot in the mother of Parliaments that we thought warranted our attention - on behalf of the wider Internet community. Our local Northampton MP, Ms Sally Keeble, was amongst a group of like-minded MPs to be found supporting a Bill being brought forward by
What is being proposed by MP Moran (to quote her opening statement directly from the online version of Hansard) is ..." That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make it a requirement for the providers of goods and services and the providers of specified facilities enabling the purchase of such goods and services to take reasonable steps, in certain circumstances, to establish the age of customers making such purchases remotely; and for connected purposes."
At first glance ... that may be seem to be a fairly innocuous proposal for many internet and e-commerce e-tailers...but on reflection, should this Bill find its way on to the statute books, the knock-on potential impact for on-line retailers "in certain circumstances" may become not a little irksome! A major part of the recent phenomenal growth in e-tailing, has been the technological advances that have helped so many to become comfortable and content to shop online. Are e-tailers (and young customers) really going to readily volunteer for the potentially frustrating prospect of having to introduce an 'age-verification' layer of bureaucracy..?
Addressing that very point, MP Moran went on to say that, " No one is seeking to hold back the tide of e-commerce, even if we could, or to place more onerous requirements on online retailers, or to prevent people from using pre-payment cards, but an increasing number of cases have exposed the ease with which children under 18 can buy alcohol, watch pornographic films, or worse. There are technological solutions, and companies are providing online age and ID check solutions in order to screen minors ....the online gaming industry has already proved that they can enable an instant customer age verification during the online transaction without incurring significant additional costs and without harming the customers experience”.
So there you have it, this is not intended by EASIserv.com to raise a needless scare story for e-tailers who are active in 'normal' on-line businesses, merely a heads-up as to what's being promoted, in your name, in Parliament. Here at EASIserv.com towers we are totally supportive of the view that children should not be facilitated to buy age-restricted goods (alcohol, cigarettes, knives etc.) just because they buy them (anonymously) online. But as always with potential law-changes, we start to wonder where it'll ever end if they get their way with this particular piece of legislation..?
Anyways, for those of you who have an interest in this topic...we'll maintain a watching brief, on your behalf, for the Bill's Second reading on Friday 16 May 2008.
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