News – Web retailing

ET staff writer
ET staff writer
01 June, 2009 0 min read

Web retailing

Internet retailers are failing to ensure young people cannot buy age-restricted goods.

Charities and children’s groups have called for legislation to force retailers to do more to protect children after a survey found blatant breaches of safeguards.

Trading standards officers from Greenwich Council conducted a survey on a number of web sites to test their age checking systems. They found that thorough checks were not being made when a 16-year-old in a supervised test bought knives, drink, and 18-rated DVDs and games from twelve separate online retailers.

A private members bill currently going through the House of Lords is calling for it to be mandatory for web retailers to adopt age verification systems.

ET staff writer
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