Photos fool cigarette age-verification software A Japanese reporter has used family photos and magazine cut-outs to fool face-recognition software currently used in some of the country's cigarette vending machines into selling him smokes. From July, Japan’s set to introduce tough regulations allowing prosecutions to be brought against vending-machine companies whose …
Underage smokers should find comfort in the fact, that the more they smoke, the quicker they will age.
Heavy use of tanning booths (or just spending a lot of time in the sun) will also help develop those crucial wrinkles needed to fool the vending machine.
If all else fails (or if you are a 12-year old just starting your filthy smoking habit without older smoker friends to buy cigarettes for you), you can always try a little make-up.
as we all know at 19 you have no wrinkles and at 20 you have loads! my arse!
im 33 and i even get asked for ID occasionally while buying smokes. must be my boyish good looks eh :)
i just cant see how any machine can tell you someone's age just by a photo! i guess it just stops lots of 20somethings?
for ages verification why not just have it on bank cards - you DOB is known to the bank so why not? seems the most feasible one to me.
Don't most credit card companies require the account holder to be over 18 ?
If they don't, then the vending machine could insist on prior registration and an additional password specifically for sale of over-18 items, with a warning that a person who gives their password to an under-18 will be prosecuted for aiding and abetting.
Ban cash sales. Credit card and PIN only. That way if kids are buying them it's with their Parent's implied consent.
After all, no matter how badly you ignore your kids and let them play up you'd not let them have your credit card.
It's the one with the wallet in the right hand pocket
and in recent news (at least in this country).
From the good old Daily Mail: How High Street bank Lloyds TSB dishes out debit cards to children as young as 11 - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1030347/Revealed-How-High-Street-bank-Lloyds-TSB-dishes-debit-cards-children-young-11.html
I know you're just joking, but please, don't even suggest it. As an adult who can still hear high-pitched sounds that most people can't, I can tell you it's not just annoying, it's actually painful. That's my problem with those devices -- assaulting (even if only aurally) one section of the populace to keep away another section of the populace should never be allowed (especially when there are already laws to "protect" you).
I remember seeing cigarette machines everywhere when I was a kid. My kids would have no idea what one was if they saw it. USA just did away with the machines altogether. Has there ever been 1 kid anywhere, anytime, that could not get a cig, if they wanted one? Restrictions only serve to teach work arounds. Educating the kids, make them watch grandpa die of cancer, that's what prevents kids starting smoking.
This article left me with the impression that it is getting harder for children to buy and therefore smoke cigarettes.
In the city where I live, there seem to be more children and young adults smoking cigarettes than there were this time last last year.
I assume there is now a well developed black market for buying cigarettes. If that sounds cynical, then ask yourself what a cigarette company would do when faced with advertising restrictions. Would they put they feet up and sigh and contemplate halcyon days, or would they get busy developing new distribution and marketing routes / means?
Many smokers buy cigarettes duty-free in bulk or buy them from people who import them by means of an undeclared business.
When people buy cigarettes in bulk, it is less likely that the odd missing packet (or three) will be noticed as missing.
It only takes one child in a class of kids whose parents smoke heavily and who turn a blind eye to the regular disapperance of some of their packets of cigarettes. There is also no shortage of children who are given 'guilt money' by parents. Buying a packet of cigarettes is easy for a child who wanders around with 30 quid or more in their pocket.
And what of the high-tech vending machines? A clear conscience for the tobacco companies? No trouble from politicians? A smoke-screen [sic] for society who will see the machines and then not even wonder at the increase in the young smoking population?
This is not a rant though... and time will tell if I was right. Look for an increase in the number of young smokers, or a change to the way official statistics are processed.
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