Stricter retail age verification on the agenda as UK fails to curb underage vaping

A survey of vape users in Northern Ireland is causing alarm in the UK, with some observers warning that a stricter policy is needed to keep vapes out of the hands of young users.

Four out of five vape users in Northern Ireland has never been asked to verify their age, compared to 45 percent across the entirety of the UK, reports The Irish News.

The survey, commissioned by Vape Superstore, also shows that vape users support more rigorous age checks.

The tools to carry out such checks are becoming easier to source, with Vape Supplier Limited (VSL) signing on as a distribution partner of ITL for its vape shop customers. VSL already supplies ITL’s MyCheckr to convenience stores, and will now sell the biometric age estimation technology to vape shops throughout the UK.

“MyCheckr is a standalone piece of hardware which is equipped with a camera and screen that quickly predicts a customer’s age completely anonymously,” says John Vallis, Senior Business Development Manager for ITL’s age and identity technology. “It gives staff an extra layer of security when checking age and asking for ID. Our technology is supported by a Trading Standards Primary Authority Partnership and is recognised as a way to help avoid test purchase failures and unwanted fines by assisting with Challenge 25. It requires no integration so customers can quickly get started achieving results immediately.”

New fines are being introduced under the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

ITL scanners were previously reaching some vape stores through Dyflin Group, which was collaborating with VSL.

MyCheckr’s age estimation was also a hit at the recent Hospitality Tech Expo in London, ITL says.

Privately’s age estimation app AgeAI is compliant with relevant regulations and appropriate for use by UK retailers, according to the Peterborough & Cambridgeshire Trading Standards body.

The local authority has bestowed Primary Authority approval on AgeAI to be used for biometric age estimation, which the company says can tell with 100 percent accuracy that a person between 18 and 20 is under 25, reports Talking Retail.

Privately’s application is used by dozens of stores in the UK, and has been used to perform almost a million retail age checks over the past year. It also has certification to EAL3 and GDPR, the report says.

The company notes that 18 percent of UK children between 11 and 17 years old have tried vaping, in a blog post highlighting the potential for age estimation, and its distribution partnership with Our Vaping Advocacy, as a way to help stores avoid selling vapes to kids.

Universal concerns

Across the Channel in the Netherlands and Belgium, HID and ScanID have partnered to provide more sophisticated ID card readers to help detect fake IDs.

ScanID has integrated HID’s ATOM reader as part of its DVSNext and Age Proof age verification systems, according to the announcement.

The HID ID card reader can read RFID chips, barcodes and machine-readable zones (MRZs), and ScanID’s software can calculate the exact age of the ID holder to ensure compliance with local laws. Alternatively, the software can be set to “smart scanning mode,” in which only the data necessary for age calculation is processed, and the shopper’s age displayed along with a green approval or red rejection screen.

On the other side of the continent, Russia’s government has proposed the use of “State Services Biometrics” to carry out age checks on people purchasing energy drinks, Interfax reports.

The proposal would make purchases of energy drinks legal only for people 18 and older, as of May 1, 2025.

In India, the Supreme Court has taken up a case that could make biometric age checks mandatory for alcohol sales, in response to a series of fatal road accidents involving intoxicated minors. The Hindu reports that the request was brought by a local NGO, which said in its petition that one in five people receiving treatment for alcohol addiction in the country is underage. The system would rely on comparison to government-issued identity documents.

Article Topics

age verification  |  biometrics  |  document verification  |  face biometrics  |  HID  |  IDScan.net  |  Innovative Technology  |  Privately  |  retail biometrics