Teens are looking for ways to live the adult life. They drink alcohol, some cigarettes, go to bars, and try to go party at clubs. But for most teens, they all lack the same thing to be able to participate in these activities. Age. By the age of 18, 60% of teens admit to having a drink in the past month. Gaining access to the illegal substances to them can be challenging, but with the latest rise in the trend of fake ID’s, it has become a lot easier. Fake IDs have been an aid for teens who are looking to buy alcohol or who are trying to get into clubs and bars while being underage. Beginning in the late 70’s, the forgery of identification products has become more and more popular among underage teens. At first, it was just a piece of paper with a simple name and street address. By 1974, it rapidly progressed to birth certificate, which were easy to forge as they did not have a photo. Just a few years later, all U.S states required a photograph to be on all identifications, making it harder for teens to just steal a name and address to become older. Since then, technology has expanded in both forgery and detection. Fake IDs have grown from being sold out of vans to being shipped overseas from secret online websites. Catching a fake has gone from bending it to see if it snaps to having to shine a flashlight upon it and looking for a pattern or scanning it and seeing if it's registered in the system. Now a common question is, what fuels a teens desire to get or own a fake
Identity theft is a major concern today in our country, millions of a person’s identity have been compromised for many of years. Identity theft occurs when someone uses another person’s personal information such as name, Social Security number, driver’s license number, credit card number, or other identifying information to take on that person’s identity in order to commit fraud or other crimes. Stealing an identity is, unfortunately, surprisingly easy to do and happens when you least expect it. Just by opening your mail, something that has personal information on it, throwing it in the trash. Therefore, a person can go through your trash and take all that information and use it against you to take on a new identity.
Have you ever received a credit card bill at the end of the month with a ridiculous amount of money needed to be paid that you never spent? This is because of identity theft. The FTC estimates that each year, over 9 million people are affected by identity theft. According to Sally Driscoll, this is because almost anyone with a computer and a slight bit of computer knowledge can pull off identity theft. Experts also claim that identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the world. Identity theft is a global problem that cannot be stopped without effective measures. The problem is, effective measures are very hard to come by when dealing with identity theft because almost any security protocol can be by-passed.
In order to safely lower drinking age, the federal government should instill more training courses over alcohol safety into the criteria in our nation's high schools. Along with the idea of providing more alcohol based education in the public school system, if students were to complete certain courses they should be eligible to apply for a drinker’s ID. In order to obtain a drinker's ID, 18 year old adults still in high school would be required to take courses such the chemistry of alcohol, the physical impacts to one's body as a result of alcohol abuse, and the consequences because of driving under the influence and possible addiction (“The Debate On Lowering The Drinking Age”). The chief of police in the college town of Boulder, Colorado, states that “The abuse of alcohol and the overconsumption of alcohol and DUI driving. Those are the areas we've gotta focus our efforts. Not on chasing kids around trying to give 'em a ticket for having a cup of beer in their hand" (“The Debate On Lowering The Drinking Age”). Even though the age restriction would be lifted, a drinker's ID may be revoked if tampered with. For example, if a young adult with a drinker’s ID drove while under the influence or bought alcohol for a minor then his ID would become invalid and ineligible to be reclaimed. Efforts by the United States government to put effective, drinker’s ID programs into action would stimulate teenagers to stop revolting against law enforcement and comply
Fake IDs are often very effective because they are not always taken seriously in the bouncer world. There are approximately more fake IDs than real that are used on college campuses. A Her Campus survey found that “54.5% of readers surveyed had or currently have a fake ID” (Collins, 2012, p. 2). The people guarding the doors at clubs and bars aren’t always equipped to spot fake IDs. In an interview, FIRST NAME Shubaly, a New York bouncer, quoted “I never received any formal how-to-spot-a-fake-ID training” (Goldberg, 2009, p. 5). The rate that underaged people are getting into clubs factors into how easy it is for teens to get alcohol, which only increases the risk of a teen to get behind the wheel while under the influence, even if they were not planning on drinking that night.
There is no doubt that the attacks on 9/11 caused Congress to pass the Real ID Act in order to prevent foreign nationals from fraudulently obtaining a U.S. driver’s license. Congress said the Real ID Act is about security, not stigmas. The law was intended to set principles for states that issue licenses and to procure acceptable documents. However, due to budgets, there are not enough resources to verify the accuracy of these documents from foreign countries. This is based solely on three 9/11 hijackers being able to obtain state identification cards while using fictitious documents. In total, thirty three hijackers acquired state driver’s licenses. Unfortunately, stern stipulations have gradually decreased due to several states and local governments allowing Identification cards to be issued without distinguishing from an authentic driver’s license (Jeunesse, 2015).
Despite the current legal drinking age being 21, underage drinkers have a virtually unlimited supply to alcohol because parents, siblings, and friends that are of age can easily supply them with booze; 26 percent of underage drinkers receive alcohol from parents or family members. In fact, 40 percent of young adults receive alcoholic beverages from friends and family (2008, Edgar Snyder). “When asked how easy it would be to get alcohol, most 8th, 10th, and 12th graders said ‘fairly easy’ or ‘very easy’” (2008, Edgar Snyder).
Teenagers often feel as if they have to do illegal activities around their friends to feel like they are a part of the team. Many people often wonder if the court of law stepped in and changed the age of drinking would this help the case of underage drinking. This proposed law would lower the drinking age to make the teenagers less rebellious and allow them to feel more like adults. If the drinking age were to be lowered then teenagers would feel as if they didn’t have to drink every day because they wouldn’t have to wonder when this opportunity will happen again. Studies have shown that:
Alcohol is a drink that possesses a seducing effect to tempt many citizens. Adults worldwide consume countless cans of beers, wine, vodkas, and other alcohol beverages. However, its luring quality has been secretly shared to minors, resulting to a problem called Underage Drinking. This situation has existed for quite some time. In the past, underage drinking was considered a miniscule crime, and wasn’t strictly restrained or monitored. As we continued to remain oblivious, numbers of adolescent drinkers have gradually increased as they used the tolerant rules to their advantage. Now, the problem has become significantly noticeable, and we can no longer neglect it. High school, even middle school students have been found with
The abuse of alcohol among teenagers in the United States is universal and destructive. Teenagers believe drinking to be the cool that they must do to fit in with a crowd or become the popular one, when they do not realize all it brings is harm. Underage drinking has been one of the largest unsolved problems in history. Although many ideas have been made and put into practice, like raising the drinking age, harsher punishments, and, at one point, banning it all-together, nothing people do can stop teens from getting their hands on this dangerous beverage.
But the government is not the only authority that has concerns. Many officers today feel that we need new rules and procedures to prevent and solve many identity theft cases (Dadisho). There is truth in this and many citizens agree with this consideration. One of the reasons why Americans feel this way is that not many cases of identity theft are actually solved. One of the reasons being is that companies do not cooperate with law enforcement enough (Dadisho). However, not only the companies are at fault here. Not only are the companies not cooperating, but also law enforcement is not interested in smaller cases, but only large ones, involving hundreds of victims. The police, being somewhat idle in this situation, do not want to be involved in identity theft crimes because they are difficult to investigate (Anderson). Many other authorities do not want to be involved in these crimes because of other reasons as well. These cases are not only difficult to solve, but are also very long-lasting. It may take years to fix the problem after the theft (Chappell 4). By abolishing the practice of identity theft, the authorities need not focus their time on identity fraud cases, but can tend to the larger problems in America. Furthermore, there are more reasons to do away with identity theft, including some of the health risks of this issue.
To add, the fear of getting caught builds a level of disrespect for law enforcement. Even a student is not 21, they could easily gain access to a person that would design them a fake ID (Reilly). So, even though the drinking age is 21, students are still able to illegally legally purchase alcohol if they are not of age.
Teenagers rarely think before they do many things. Many times teenagers go to big blowouts or little get together with their friends. Their first thought is not about death, their grades, or alcoholism; their main purpose is to get drunk fast and sober up before going home by their set curfews. Each year most teen deaths have been caused from underage drinking in the United States, which is a big topic that the government is trying to prevent from happening. The government has set the drinking age to 21 but how are teens getting there alcohol? Teens are using fake Id’s to get their alcohol or even asking adults to purchase it for them, because of this, underage drinking has become a
Even though the drinking age is 21 there is still a problem with underage drinkers. When teens get their hands on the alcohol they don’t understand the dangers of it. Therefore, they are careless and feel as if they are invisible and no one can stop them. Luckily, rates of adolescent alcohol use have fallen since the 1980s, but the
Explaining the topic to any adult, they mainly all have the same idea; teenagers just want to party, they do not act their age, but sometimes that is not always the case. Once a male teenager turns eighteen, what does he have to sign up for by law? The draft. Teenagers are always looked down upon once they become adults, as if older adults think they are not ready for what is to come, but once they make a mistake against the law, the first thing to happens is they get tried as an adult. In all of these situations, the same thing is reoccurring; any teenager that turns eighteen is considered an adult, but if they were to drink, like any other twenty-one year-old adult, they would get charged and tried as
Many eighteen-year-olds are college freshmen, and, in most colleges, beer is available to people under the age of twenty-one. "Remorseless drinking has long been as much a ritual of university life as football, final exams, and frat parties" (Gorman, 176). I believe that the federal government is tempting these underage adults by restricting their legal ability to drink in such an environment as college campuses where it is legal for many of the students to consume alcoholic beverages. In order to be able to drink alcohol, many underage adults purchase fake forms of identification; "Raising the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 in the 1980s merely triggered a boom in the business of creating fake ID cards" (Gorman, 176). People twenty-years of age and younger are purchasing these fake forms of identification in order to allow them to enter and drink in bars with their friends who