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Fake IDs in the age of the internet

melmagazine.com

111–120 of 201 posts

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Purchase alcohol. There's all sorts of situations where it is legal for minors to drink alcohol. Like for example, when accompanied by a parent in a bar in Wisconsin.

Many states have a provision allowing minors to consume alcohol provided by parents/guardians, but good luck getting a bar to serve to a minor, even if the parent is there. No bar owner wants to deal with nitpicking from law enforcement over whether or not the person with the minor was actually their parent or guardian, and serving someone that is obviously a minor is a big enough cultural taboo in the US that few if…

Indeed[0]

One would've thought that maybe a place which stuck it's neck out and became known as 'the place to drink under 21' would get a lot of business, but I guess that could also be a potential PR disaster

[0]http://drinkingage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=0...

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not as big a problem as in northern Europe (alcoholism), but it's still a problem. Alcohol has claimed significantly more victims than all hard drugs combined. I agree prohibition is not the answer, only a change of culture will deter you from e.g. driving when you're drunk. But taking the drunk drivers off the streets or shutting down premises that systematically serve alcohol to kids, is not a bad idea

The farther away from the root cause something is, the less I can get behind it. For example, I'm against banning underage drinking, but I'm for educating teenagers about knowing their limits. Drunk driving is something that's already illegal (obviously), and the bac threshold is quite low here, although I do wish it was (much) more stringently enforced.

I could get behind more stringent drunk driving enforcement if it wasn't already used as a cash cow in a lot of places.

You can't throw law enforcement at a problem when it itself is a problem in a lot of cases.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to Germany for example with a bunch of holograms and whatnot: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/DE_Licen... In contrast to e.g. the French, our drivers licence is a valid means of identification though.

That's the standard European driving license, which everyone has used since 2013, but many countries used from much earlier (2006-ish?). This can prove your name and age, but not your nationality.

That's a fair point, you can't use a EU driver's licence for traveling.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#114
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Greece, we don't check IDs for alcohol use (in practice. I think we're supposed to be doing it, nowadays). There are also no on-premises laws for alcohol. I think that's mostly because the culture is different, as people don't generally drink to get drunk like in other countries. You won't see the round-after-round drinking that you see in the UK or US, people will generally buy one or two drinks, and will rarely…

Pardon my ignorance, but why drink if not to get 'drunk'? Alcohol doesn't taste very nice, so the only advantage I get out of it is that I feel more of a 'buzz'. Is it common just to drink as if it were something that tastes nice, like juice?

Sipping beer instead of water while manually relocating 3yd of topsoil makes the job suck a lot less.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#115
post #34

> in my case, hidden inside a box of red chopsticks. Though I reflexively tossed the utensils out with a glut of election mailers and Bed Bath & Beyond coupons, I soon realized they just might contain what I’d been waiting over two months for. This is the weirdest part of the story for me. Does anyone else get boxes of chopsticks in their mail so regularly that they instinctively treat it as junk mail?

Journalists and PR people regularly get all kinds of samplers and swag in the mail, so it's not unlikely.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#116

Interesting that they mention Boston - along with NC it's the only place where my green card has been refused as an acceptable form of ID. I have no idea why a federally issued photo ID with my name, DoB and photo on it apparently isn't enough to prove my age. As a Brit, it amuses me that there are apparently so many balding 20 year olds with grey beards in the US that I am suspicious. They also don't seem to like my…

Boston is the real deal when it comes to ID crackdowns. About 150k college students so some tens of thousands of fake IDs, plus a history of blue laws. I believe that legally they are even allowed to refuse legitimate out-of-state US drivers' licenses (most places do not do this, but they can). Foreign passports also can be refused. And that's not even counting the notorious "box scanners" which, to my knowledge, are…

Some of the blue laws are really strange.

I remember one year we ended up driving to NH to fill the trunk - due to the day that Xmas fell on nowhere in MA was allowed to sell booze, even though it was a regular business day

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your bizarreness may be misplaced. American 18-year-olds can smoke and gamble. I don't see how 18 prevents fake ids from 16 and 17 year olds though.

18 year olds can only gamble a bit: Some states have the ages set at 21, and I guess if the casino serves alcohol on the gambling floor, they must be 21 to go there. They can buy lottery tickets. I'm not sure how things like betting on horse races works, though. And it doesn't, but it can be slightly harder for a 16-17 year old to get a fake ID without alerting their parents.

> I'm not sure how things like betting on horse races works, though.

You need to be 18 in most of the states where it's legal, 21 in a handful and 19 in Alabama. I've never seen anyone carding at a racetrack, but then most of the people at a racetrack are 40+

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In Greece, we don't check IDs for alcohol use (in practice. I think we're supposed to be doing it, nowadays). There are also no on-premises laws for alcohol. That's not correct. The law states clearly that alcohol purchase and consumption in public are illegal for underage people [1]. It's also illegal to enter premises where alcohol is served, without being escorted by an adult. Unfortunately the problem with Greec…

> the problem with Greece is not the lack of laws, it's enforcing them Hey, you don't have to tell me, I'm still waiting for smoke-free bars. Underage drinking is enforced even less than that, but it's a much less widespread problem. The lack of "on-premises" laws is especially of little concern, as we very rarely get public disturbances because of drunk people.

Smoke free bars? How about smoke-free restaurants first :)

To be fair though I'm witnessing a shift the last few years, at least in restaurants/tavernas/fast-food joints. You can more easily find places to eat these days where smoking inside is not allowed.

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#119
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the US simply seems culturally incapable of healthy approaches to easing kids through becoming adults on a number of dimensions I couldn't agree more, and numerous problems are pretty much a direct result.

You could say the same thing about Europe, the resulting problems are just different. The grass is always greener...

... on your own lawn?

Re: Fake IDs in the age of the internet

#120
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the US simply seems culturally incapable of healthy approaches to easing kids through becoming adults on a number of dimensions I couldn't agree more, and numerous problems are pretty much a direct result.

You could say the same thing about Europe, the resulting problems are just different. The grass is always greener...

How so?
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