BREDA 5/4/2010 8:38:04 AM
Dutch Technology Guards Against Underage Drinking
Ageviewers system helps cashiers and works at self-scan checkouts
The Ageviewers system, from Hollandsche Exploitatie Maatschappij BV (HEM) in The Netherlands, enforces legal age limits by performing remote age checks.
The approach makes it virtually impossible for minors to acquire alcohol or tobacco.
Background
Alcohol consumption at too early an age has developed into a global problem over this past decade. Adolescents drink too early, too often and too much. High alcohol consumption at a young age can leave scars impossible to remove. It can lead to acute intoxication and causes irreparable damage to the young and developing brain. Poor school results and disorderly conduct are problems associated with drinking at too early an age. Moreover, it increases the chance of developing alcohol-related problems at a later stage in life.
The extent of the damage for society, either short or long term, can hardly be accounted for any more. Effectively limiting the availability of alcohol for adolescents by strictly enforcing legal age limits has become a top priority in the health policies of most developed countries.
Lock on Alcohol
The general availability of alcohol is significantly enhanced by a lack of consistency and the inherent inefficiencies to traditional methods of age validation. With the Ageviewers system, age checks are therefore no longer performed by cashiers, but systematically and from a remote validation center. Without authorization from the center, there is no way to register the sale of a product requiring an age check.
The system does not confront adults with the burden of having to show identification. Also, it introduces the possibility of 100% age compliance for the sale of alcohol and tobacco products at self-scan checkouts.
Milestones
While completing the technical development and successfully performing pilots in retail outlets, HEM in 2009 was awarded subsidies by both the European Community and the Dutch Government for the "social and technical innovation" demonstrated with the Ageviewers solution. Also, an article highlighting the effectiveness of the Ageviewers solution was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Last January, the Dutch Minister of Health presented a report by the Dutch Consumer Product Safety Authority, concluding the unique possibilities the system offers in the enforcement of age limits. In March 2010, the Koninklijke SlijtersUnie, the royal Dutch association of independent liquor stores representing over 500 outlets in the Netherlands, announced the introduction of Ageviewers among their member outlets.
Business Model
Teleconnect, Inc. (OTCBB: TLCO) announced yesterday that it has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire 100% of HEM. Teleconnect issued a statement saying, "It is our objective to excel in Ecological, Social and Governance (ESG) issues. The well being and health of young people and prevention of problems like aggression, violence and accidents are among those issues. Ageviewers creates a healthier and safer society, safer working conditions for cashiers, and it reduces the necessity and cost of law enforcement. It is simply a unique and economically responsible answer to many urgent demands."
Teleconnect's future business model will be based on four sources of income: the leasing of age validation equipment, the performance of age validation transactions, the performance of market surveys, and the broadcasting of in-store commercial messages using age validation equipment in between age checks.
For more information on HEM, visit www.hembreda.nl.
For more reports on addressing youth risk behaviors, visit School Safety Partners at www.SchoolSafetyPartners.org.
