Cathryn Haley Ford - Comment

A. Non-Face-to-Face Sale and Distribution of Tobacco Products 3. Internet sales are most likely the method used most by minors to acquire tobacco products in a non-face-to-face way. This is probably because of the ease of ordering, maybe less strict methods of identifying age, and familiarity with the internet with today's youth. Usually on websites with age restrictions, it just asks for a date of birth, which would not be hard to add a few years to reach the acceptable age. 5.d. A higher standard would be to require the shipment to only be delivered to the person ordering the package, as well as requiring that person to be an adult meeting the age requirements of the shipment. Both of these requirements will help limit the availability of non-face-to-face shipment of tobacco products to minors. 9. On some sites, access to the site is restricted to members only. The membership requires an age verification that is generally 21 and not 18. B. Advertising Most advertising that I see about tobacco products is in magazines, but never particularly geared toward non-face-to-face exchanges. They are usually just a general advertisement. When I am on the internet, visiting various sites, I rarely ever come across an advertisement for tobacco products. 14. On Facebook though, social website, businesses can create profiles. So a tobacco store could have a profile, showing new shipments that have arrived and posting pictures of people smoking that might influence minors, and also comments. I don't think there is a way though that minors would be able to purchase through the site though, it is more geared towards just advertisement. To restrict minors access to these profiles, the website should enable an age restriction to view the page as well as to like or become a fan of the page. This would not be too difficult because generally Facebook members put their date of birth in their profile as part of setting up an account.