[Redway]

Yup. They sometimes roll in the most mature-looking 17-year-olds who almost look like fully-developed women and men and are inclined to fail you if you don’t card them. I remember a certain Dexter kicking off at a certain Nancy (Eastenders) for being carded (he would’ve been about 20/21 at that time) but it’s literally been strictly challenge 25 at big shops since 2008/2009 so. It’s just one of them. A mature-looking 16/17-year-old can easily look 21/22 but if you think 25 they’re way more likely to be at least 18 even if they’re not quite in their mid-twenties. It does make sense. 18/19-year-olds are the ones who are going to be asked for ID the most so it shouldn’t ever be a case of “do you still get ID’d?” from one 19-year-old to another. Unless you fully look like you’re in your mid.-twenties or older, of course you do. It’s about not just being 18+ but being able to prove it.

The issue is with the disrespectful/patronising way some shop-workers ask certain people. Unless they blatantly look about 12 in the first place, no-one should ever be asking someone how old they are (that’s a personal question that a lot of people won’t want to answer anyway, especially ladies) or anything other than whether they have any ID or not. You don’t need to patronisingly probe into something you’re going to see for yourself anyway if you just ask the question you’re supposed to ask. Some 17-year-olds can pass for 22 but it goes the other way or can be either. Some people naturally pass for a broader range of angles than others (what’s 17 to one person can be 26 to another) so it’s just about respectfully holding space for that and not asking them their age before ID unless they barely look up to 15 to begin with and they’re blatantly actually a child.

And sometimes the same one person will keep asking someone for ID just because they “don’t like 25 yet”. Individual store policies might be different but I do feel like common sense means that you ask for it once (maybe more until you remember them) and then keep it pushing. You shouldn’t really need to keep asking the same person if you’ve already seen their ID quite a few times already if you remember them. Their age is set in stone and print and that’s not going to change no matter how many times you ask.