To think that daughter wont be able to go clubbing due to tightening of age checks

[Carolinethe]

My DD is one of the youngest in her year -August baby- and so has only just turned 17.

She has several friends who are turning 18 shortly and one has already mentioned going to nightclubs etc. She gors to the pub with friends and I gather has been served alcohol before now but I dont like to probe too much.

My perception is that licensing requirements have been tightened up so its much harder to get in if you are under 18 these days. I dont want to tell her to try and blag it and have the embarassment of being turned away by a bouncer for not being old enough when all her friends will have got in. So realisticall is she fated to not going clubbing until until next year when probably the attraction will have worn off/ everyone will be going away?

In my day we were attending clubs from about 15 onwards and I had various forms of ID stating fale birthdates to make us 18+ for when we were asked. I believe now this has been clamped down on so that id is only available with proof of birthday etc so no chance of faking it.

what do others do? Or is it out of reach for her?

I work as a door supervisor and a lot of clubs, and pubs in my home town, use ID scanners for everyone. This not only checks that ID is genuine, but that they are old enough for the venue, but also has a photo and address (assuming its updated) of every customer so if there is any trouble inside, those involved can be dealt with my Police at a later date. The pubs only use them on weekend nights, but the clubs use them every night they are open. They are becoming a lot more popular, so I guess it depends on how strict the local venues are with ID.

Not sure why you're so keen for your daughter to go clubbing, tbh...

Depends whereabouts you are. Round here as long as they ALL look old enough she would be ok. But if even one of them looks young then they will all need ID’s.

I don't think this is new. There have been pretty stringent ID checks for years. I'm 36 and we never went clubbing until 18, it was rare in sixth form. There were a couple of smaller bars with dance floors (with poor reputations) known for letting in underage drinkers, so some people went to places like that but even those would get busted from time to time.

Clubbing isnt an essential activity, she'll find plenty of other ways to socialise.

But I don’t think the novelty will have worn off in ten months tbh.

No, she wouldn't get in anymore. I could get in to any club at 15 in the 90s....probably not because I particularly looked 18, more that nobody gave a shit. My 18 year old niece (who looks older) couldn't get in anywhere until she was actually 18, and she did try!

@DeepaBeesKit I am younger than you and I was out clubbing from 14. Loads of the big London clubs had very lax enforcement.
The only way I know of youngsters getting into clubs now is by borrowing the id of a slightly older friend/family member who they look similar to.

It’s really been clamped down on now op. They really do ID anyone who looks under 25

It is right that age checks are tightened.

If your DD is under age it is the club and the staff member (if they serve her alcohol) who will get into trouble.

If you think that it is worth people being sacked, then that's up to you.

And 'fated not to go clubbing...' is a little dramatic.

I had a fake student ID made when I had this problem 10 years ago- generally worked but depends where she is going.
If it’s the local pub they are going to wise up quickly that she is always forgetting her driving license!

Dd is the same. Shame really, it was great fun making fake IDs when I was young.

The same thing happened with dd2. She decided it wasn’t worth the hassle of being the only person not let in so didn’t try & go clubbing. Luckily she’s now at uni & from what I gather has caught up with her friends.

I am 28 and my friends and I still get ID'd! I think she would be LUCKY to get in without ID, must be extremely rare.

Not unless she has an older sister (or cousin) she's practically identical too...

DSS is an august b’day too - he used the passport of a boy a year older to get in. I don’t think they look remotely similar in real life, but it was quite a generic young teenage boy in the passport pic so he seemed to get away with it!

I don’t think it’s about the op encouraging her dd to go clubbing, more that those who are summer born often feel they’re missing out… last to be of legal age, last to start driving etc.

I understand that you don't want your daughter to be 'left out' of a friendship group 'cos she's too young, but I am also concerned that you think it's ok to break the rules when it suits you. Where do you draw the line? She's too young to drive so how would you feel if one of her (car owning) friends encouraged her to have a go at driving and someone got killed? Or if someone encouraged her to have sex (cos she is old enough for that but if) she was encouraged ......

I couldn't go to the end of sixth form bar crawl as I was two days too young!

(So the handful of us that couldn't had a little house party instead and played board games)

All the clubs and a lot of the bars in my town demand ID no matter how old you look. Yet when my friend came down from Brighton she didn't bring ID with her because apparently no where asks for it there. Was a bit of a pain because we couldn't go anywhere despite the fact we're both 40!

I assuming she looks old enough my suggestion would be a trip to Brighton

DS had a fairly good fake ID that got him into lots of places. I found out but I hadn't the heart to take it from him, as he is also summer born and struggled for years to make friends, so I didn't want him to miss out on the social life he'd only just found, because all his mates turned 18 before him. And he isn't a drinker. He was fine to go to pubs and have diet coke.

You could try inviting groups of them round to yours for small parties so that even if she can't go clubbing there are some social events she knows she can do. We used to make pizzas, light the fire pit and they'd have a great time.

@loopylindi

I understand that you don't want your daughter to be 'left out' of a friendship group 'cos she's too young, but I am also concerned that you think it's ok to break the rules when it suits you. Where do you draw the line? She's too young to drive so how would you feel if one of her (car owning) friends encouraged her to have a go at driving and someone got killed? Or if someone encouraged her to have sex (cos she is old enough for that but if) she was encouraged ......

It's kind of obvious where you draw the line isn't it. Line drawn after going clubbing a few months too early but before driving illegally.

I am actually glad things have been tightened up. In my day, back in the '90s, I could get I to pubs and clubs from the age of 14. It's horrifying to think back on it. We drank irresponsibily and were exposed to situations we didn't know ow how to handle

3wildones
I'm from a different area where its been standard to ask for ID (either on the door of bars/clubs or when ordering drinks in pubs) for at least 20 years!

I got ID'd last month and I'm 37.

DH often gets ID'd and he's 6ft2 with a big beard.

It's so much stricter than in our teen years.

I was in a similar position twenty years ago, all the venues where I lived were aiming for an older crowd so were really tight on IDs. It meant I got into going to gigs rather than clubbing (a lot of gig venues allow under 18s if the main venue is separated from the bar)

The only thing that was pretty gutting was not being able to celebrate getting my results as most people went straight to a local bar and I was still ten days off!

Your daughter's generation are lucky in that interests are much more widespread than just clubbing and drinking. There are far more teenagers who don't drink at all now, I'm sure she won't be short of chances to go out.