Under Age Drinking

[hakunahakuna]

My friend's son (under 18) went into a well known pub after the football yesterday afternoon.

He was served copious amounts of alcohol, without being asked for ID. Then at 8pm the staff did ask for ID as they are stricter after this time. Well surely they must have guessed he may not have been 18 then?

(8pm is about the time he's usually expected home anyway)!

I went into pubs when I was young, but times have moved on. Aren't all pubs meant to have a Challenge 25 policy now?

I went into pubs when I was young, but times have moved on. Aren't all pubs meant to have a Challenge 25 policy now?

As far as I was aware, this was voluntary. In any event, given the state of the pub trade these days, I can't see a pub turning down trade if it can get away with it.

There has probably been shift change. The person serving before 8pm thought he looked 18 and the person after 8pm has been dubious or just more cautious.

No apparently not. It was the same person who had been serving them. However, as it's a city centre with lots of drinking around on a Saturday night, they start getting stricter!

Challenge 25 is a condition of a lot of pubs license now but does it always happen in practice? No. It just totally depends on the staff on shift, how busy it is as to whether staff have a chance to get a good look, and it’s a subjective thing. It may be that the member of staff serving him before 8pm thought he did look over 25, the next one on shift didn’t.

I worked in a pub while I was at uni and on a normal day it would be done, ID asked for, but if it was a busy day like a match day I can see where it slips a bit. Super busy bar, 3 people deep waiting to order, do you always get the chance to have a good look? No.

It can be hard to gauge age though and I think for men it is harder. My husband never really got ID’d even when we were 17/18, still doesn’t now in our 20’s, no matter where we go I could count on one hand the times he’s been asked to show ID whereas one of my BIL still gets asked most of the time despite actually being a year older than us.

DS is 18 (old in his year group) and he can go out with 17 year olds and they all get served, or one of the 18 year olds can buy a round for all. DS carries ID.
They know where they can go to do this. I was quite shocked when I realised this.
Not sure if it would be so easy for 16/17 year olds - he only started going to pubs when he turned 18.

Thanks.

It was the same member of staff.

I think there's a blind eye/tolerance of it before the pubs get busy but they're stricter about it in the evening. Probably a mixture of giving them some income and reducing the risk of the underage ones getting drunk/being a pain/being at risk. I wouldn't be happy if they took that view for 14 year olds drinking vodka but logically or not, it seems less of a big thing for 17 years olds having a pint.

And possibly, in a city centre at night, there could be more police presence?

This doesn't happen in my area. They ID the whole bunch and if one doesn't have ID no one gets served. It's a pain in the arse if they are being served before you but I understand why the pubs have to do it.

In the pubs near me, in my experience, the larger chains, like a Wetherspoons, are more likely to check. The smaller local pubs seem less likely, especially on busy match days.

Not something that really matters in my view. Arbitrary age limits like this are totally pointless.

There is far more benefit to teens being out socialising even if that involves a few beers than cooped up alone on screens.

It is also much better that alcohol is served in a controlled environment with set measures etc. I would far rather it was treated as a normal aspect of life rather than a forbidden fruit.

If it was super busy they probably didn't look properly. Honestly unless the friend is 15 I would stay out of it.

I agree. I think it's good to start learning how to drink socially rather than turning 18 and then going mental.

Does it matter? How old is the kid?

I suspect a new manager came on shift or your ds had been there drinking long enough that they were ready to cut him off and send him home.

We all did it in our youth and survived . The more you deny the more they will want to try . It's easy to get fake ID now I would imagine most teens over 16 have got it

This is the most sensible thing I've read on MN for days.

My DS is 17 next week and plays football for a team (both 1st and reserves) so Saturday and Sunday and they go to the pub after the match. Am I bothered? Absolutely not! Its a few pints.

let the boy be.

We live rurally and the nearest pub is 4 miles away and there’s a room at the back for lads his age where they play dates play pool and watch. And its great! They not on the streets (not that my lad roams) but they behave and the landlord keeps a tab in them, they’re the future.

How old is he?

Ot's definitely a lot stricter nowdays than it was in the 80s.

I was never id'ed from age 14 onwards.

"Let the boy be"

What makes you think the mum has said anything to the boy** or intends to?

And before you say this, perhaps it would have been useful to know how old the boy was and how very drunk he was!!!!

It's the pub that she has an issue with and that I was asking about!!!!

This thing is they can order a soft drink in the pub and sneak vodka or rum into with a bottle smuggled inside a handbag or water bottle especially in the summer in beer gardens . We used to do it as teens . I believe they can drink alcohol if they order a meal . It's not illegal to drink at home at any age . Same with smoking .

Like abroad where kids are served a glass of wine with their meal every evening . If you ban it or get sanctimonious about it, it becomes forbidden fruit and is tempting.

Doesn't have to be challenge 25, but there does have to be an age challenge policy as a condition of the licence, 25 is considered best practice by licencing though I believe. And you have to be able to prove you use it.

The licencee and the person serving stand to be prosecuted if someone under 18 was sold alcohol, and the licence reviewed and more conditions applied or revoked all together.

The lad also broke the law by buying it, so there's that to consider when doing any reporting, there's also the possibility that someone else bought it for him, and they've broken the law too.
So they could face prosecution as well.

The pub may be able to defend to a certain degree if someone else bought it for him, though bar staff should remain vigilant to that being done, however that can be difficult to prove because people who are underage obviously know they are and risk being caught, the drink removed and asked to leave, so they're very careful about it.

Obviously any CCTV will show who was served and how the group behaved (as in deliberately concealing from staff he was drinking).

I don't understand bar staff that don't ID people who look young (even though if you ID anyone 30 seconds over the age of 18 you're a jobsworth on here) or they even slightly doubt, you're not just risking your job, but a fine and the pubs licence as well.

They're quite tough on this sort of thing, depending on the area, and if the pub has had other issues around under age drinking or other stuff they could face quite stiff penalties for it.