Commentary: State AGs Posture Against A-B
In what I can only describe as typical political posturing, twenty-three state attorneys general, drunk on tobacco money and casting about for the next scapegoat, have written a tough letter to Anheuser-Busch, asking the brewer to step up its policing of consumers gaining access to Bud.TV, their $30 million content-driven website which already has the toughest standards for preventing underage access than any other alcohol website.
The state AGs are proposing several additional safeguards, like sending a postcard to the home or making a phone call to verify age.
Give me a break. What strikes me as eminently ridiculous and disingenuous about this letter is that the state AG’s have hardly lifted a finger to prevent underage access to web sites WHICH ACTUALLY SELL ALCOHOL, which have absolutely no or very little age-verification tools. But they will posture and strike a sanctimonious tone, saving our children from the evils of Bud.TV, a website which doesn’t sell alcohol, but merely has some funny G-rated vignettes which are only benignly tied to beer at all.
THE EXPERIMENT: A TRUE STORY. To prove my point, yesterday afternoon I sat my thirteen year-old son at a computer and asked him to attempt to gain access to Bud.TV. After several tries, he could not gain access to the site. Finally, he figured out he could use my birthday (which he had to ask me) and my name. But again it rejected him because I had already signed up. So, yes, with some conniving he probably eventually would have gained access to, gasp, videos of chimps doing people's jobs.
Then, I asked him to purchase a bottle of Everclear 190 Proof grain alcohol. After a quick Google search, he found a vendor called InternetWines.com. With his debit card (which he has as a part of his checking account) he purchased a 750ml bottle to be shipped to our house via UPS Ground, and the only age verification was a box that instructed him to “Enter Your Age at your Last Birthday”, to which he entered, 21. Where, I ask, are the Attorneys General now?
But I can rest easy at night knowing that my son will be saved from Vince Vaughn’s bad jokes on Bud.TV thanks to our country’s diligent AGs, but can easily purchase a $25 bottle of grain alcohol (not to mention call up any variety of deviant pornography you could possibly conceive, and some you can't). No call for postcards sent to the house, no phone calls verifying age. Just the honor system. And yet this is happening with nary a wimper from politicians or judges on access control.
The 23 attorneys general who sent the letter are from Maine, Louisiana, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming, and they should all be ashamed of themselves for going after A-B to make an easy political score, because A-B apparently has deeper pockets and a higher profile than InternetWines.com. Oh, deliver me please from the perfidy, the hypocrisy.
This commentary contributed by WSD publisher Harry Schuhmacher
The state AGs are proposing several additional safeguards, like sending a postcard to the home or making a phone call to verify age.
Give me a break. What strikes me as eminently ridiculous and disingenuous about this letter is that the state AG’s have hardly lifted a finger to prevent underage access to web sites WHICH ACTUALLY SELL ALCOHOL, which have absolutely no or very little age-verification tools. But they will posture and strike a sanctimonious tone, saving our children from the evils of Bud.TV, a website which doesn’t sell alcohol, but merely has some funny G-rated vignettes which are only benignly tied to beer at all.
THE EXPERIMENT: A TRUE STORY. To prove my point, yesterday afternoon I sat my thirteen year-old son at a computer and asked him to attempt to gain access to Bud.TV. After several tries, he could not gain access to the site. Finally, he figured out he could use my birthday (which he had to ask me) and my name. But again it rejected him because I had already signed up. So, yes, with some conniving he probably eventually would have gained access to, gasp, videos of chimps doing people's jobs.
Then, I asked him to purchase a bottle of Everclear 190 Proof grain alcohol. After a quick Google search, he found a vendor called InternetWines.com. With his debit card (which he has as a part of his checking account) he purchased a 750ml bottle to be shipped to our house via UPS Ground, and the only age verification was a box that instructed him to “Enter Your Age at your Last Birthday”, to which he entered, 21. Where, I ask, are the Attorneys General now?
But I can rest easy at night knowing that my son will be saved from Vince Vaughn’s bad jokes on Bud.TV thanks to our country’s diligent AGs, but can easily purchase a $25 bottle of grain alcohol (not to mention call up any variety of deviant pornography you could possibly conceive, and some you can't). No call for postcards sent to the house, no phone calls verifying age. Just the honor system. And yet this is happening with nary a wimper from politicians or judges on access control.
The 23 attorneys general who sent the letter are from Maine, Louisiana, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming, and they should all be ashamed of themselves for going after A-B to make an easy political score, because A-B apparently has deeper pockets and a higher profile than InternetWines.com. Oh, deliver me please from the perfidy, the hypocrisy.
This commentary contributed by WSD publisher Harry Schuhmacher
posted at 8:21 PM
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