New ID scheme for teenagers

4:45pm Friday 22nd February 2008

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Sixteen to 18-year-olds throughout Bromley are set to receive council-funded ID in a bid to undermine the use of counterfeit cards.

The £30,000 scheme was launched in the past few weeks as private contractor Euclid visited schools across the borough in order to snap students for the new cards.

Retailers throughout the borough are said to accept the identification, perhaps indicating that many will forego tighter restrictions that currently demand the presentation of passports and drivers' licenses when purchasing age-restricted goods in fear of frequently faked student cards.

For non-drivers who previously faced the humiliation of revealing stony-faced passport pictures this may come as something of a relief!

However, Liberal Democrat Councillor Martin Curry - spokesperson on young people's issues - has suggested that there will be few effects "other than making it easier for little tykes to buy spray paint".

Whilst most of us would object to such a disparaging portrayal, it is also apparent that the proposal has a number of flaws.

Whilst use of the card remains restricted to Bromley it may fail to become the staple ID of more adventurous teens likely to require identification for purchases and admissions outside of the borough.

Then there's the concern that the new cards may simply encourage the production of a whole new breed of fakes.

Even if the scheme does succeed in its aim to eclipse the use of replicas in Bromley, the rite-of-passage endeavours of students to impersonate older friends looks likely to persist!