Age Verification

[Smokingfreely]

I am going to be setting up a website soon to sell personal vaporizers, and I would like to do an age verification on my customers. I have started researching the various services out there, and found that there is a plethora of them out there, and most of them don't publish their pricing. Rather than wasting a week listening to a bunch of proposals, I was wondering what other suppliers are doing?

I'm not comfortable just asking them to give me their birthdate, and hoping to fall back on that when a 12 year old kid gets his hands on one of these, so don't suggest this as an acceptable practice, please. Any ideas?

 

[NathanS]

Well you have to be 18 to have a paypal account or a credit card so thats my verification. Things like "click if you are under 18" do nothing.

 

[Idahojo]

I certainly would not want a child to get a hold of any of our toys but IMO the parent is just as responsible to protect their children from these as they are from analogs. The "over 18" things on these sites are just irritating to me. I agree with Nathan. Let the payment plan be your policing. These kids are smarter on computers than most of us.

 

[DCrist721]

Well you have to be 18 to have a paypal account or a credit card so thats my verification. Things like "click if you are under 18" do nothing.

There's nothing to verify that you are 18 when you set up a PayPal account though besides you putting down your date of birth. I've had a PayPal account since I was 16.

Not to mention that a kid could always get a hold of their parent's credit card anyway.

 

[Sun Vaporer]

Well you have to be 18 to have a paypal account or a credit card so thats my verification. Things like "click if you are under 18" do nothing.

Nathans--you owe no more duty then that--after that it is the parents problem--after all it comes in the mail as well---So you have forfilled you standard or care----IMHO----------Sun

 

[DCrist721]

Nathans--you owe no more duty then that--after that it is the parents problem--after all it comes in the mail as well---So you have forfilled you standard or care----IMHO----------Sun

Like I said though, the only age verification that paypal does is asking you for your date of birth.

And most people work until 5:00, whereas most children only go to school until 2:00-4:00, and all mail is delivered before 5:00, therefore, most children have access to the mail before their parents even leave work.

Not to mention, a lot of parents that I know mistakenly believe that it is illegal to open their children's mail.

However, at this point NathanS doesn't have to legally do anything to prevent underage purchases as far as I'm aware, so it really doesn't matter that his practices don't prevent underage purchases.

 

[Smokingfreely]

Legality is one thing, getting that 12 year old that slipped through the cracks all over the 6 o'clock news at a time when the industry is under the microscope anyways is another. Besides the publicity, there's also liability issues should some kid get his hands on this - "Little Johnny didn't know what it was, it just looked so alluring, and now he's using niccotine....."

 

[halopunker]

Legality is one thing, getting that 12 year old that slipped through the cracks all over the 6 o'clock news at a time when the industry is under the microscope anyways is another. Besides the publicity, there's also liability issues should some kid get his hands on this - "Little Johnny didn't know what it was, it just looked so alluring, and now he's using niccotine....."

Easy solution. Don't sell on the internet...but than again, I may be a little bias

 

[OutWest]

one option some alcohol sellers have done is to send UPS or Fedex and send it "Adult Signature Required". However, from my understanding that will limit it to 21 and over, not 18 and over. And, part of the agreement with the shippers is that should the item end up being delivered to an underage person (through neglect on the part of the delivery person, through fake id being used, or any other reason) the retailer is responsible for the item being sold and delivered to someone underage.

 

[DCrist721]

I just remembered something. When I started ordering cigarettes online from indian reservations, on the first delivery I was required to show my drivers license to prove that I was over 18, and this was with plain old USPS, not UPS or Fed-Ex.

 

[Smokingfreely]

DCrist, that would be perfect. I was not aware that USPS provided that service. I will look into it. Thanks.

 

[Idahojo]

Parents should be responsible for their own children. If they don't want that responsibility then don't have them. Cash, Nathan, Lacey, etc are NOT responsible for the nation's children. I get so tired of people blaming others when their kids screw up.

 

[Lorddrek]

When I used to order ammunition online I had to supply proof of age before I could order. This was kept on file for any future orders. If and/or when this becomes a legitimate business then you can expect something like this to be necessary.

 

[DCrist721]

Now that I think of it, I might have had to do the first cigarette order with UPS for the age verification, not USPS; I really have a terrible memory and the pain killers for my back don't help that. SO I can't be positive, but it's something to look into.

I agree with Idahojo though. However, if making sure that these don't get into the hands of kids is something that you feel you need to do for your conscience, using PayPal as age verification or assuming that the parent's will get a hold of the mail before the children isn't going to cut it.

 

[Lorddrek]

I really have a terrible memory

Yeah the psychedelic peace symbol kinda gave that away...

 

[DCrist721]

Yeah the psychedelic peace symbol kinda gave that away...

No, I had a really bad memory before I started smoking weed if that's what you were inferring, and I rarely smoke the stuff anymore. The primary reason for my poor memory is the pain killers I take for my back.