I am talking about these signs found in places that sell tobacco and/or alcohol: “If you look younger than 21, you’ll have to prove you are older than 18”.
What does this mean? Is there some zero tolerance agenda behind this?
I’m not a UK Doper, but here in British Columbia I have seen similar signs.
It just means, in relevance to your OP, that 18 is the legal age, but if someone appears to be under 21 they will be asked for i.d.
I think it’s intended to smooth things over, because so many people get their knickers in a twist when they’re asked for i.d.
Is that what you meant?!?!
It’s not a legal situation or anything like that. It means if the cashier asks for ID, and has a snooty teenager argue that they’re 18 and that they look 18, the cashier can just say “well, maybe you do, but you don’t look 21, read the sign”.
(As for ‘zero tolerance agenda’, no cashier or shopkeeper or landlord wants to be hit with a hefty fine for serving underage.)
In Texas, I’ve seen signswhich say “We card anyone who looks under 35”. It’s just a way of discouraging kids.
I’ve never been carded 
Zero tolerance agenda? The law has zero tolerance for selling restricted substances to those under the legal age. There’s no “agenda” involved.
The law also doesn’t exempt the merchant from penalties for serving an underage person just because that person happens to look older than he actually is. There are people under eightteen who appear to be in their twenties. A prudent merchant will have a policy of verifying the age of anyone who could be too young. A simple way to do this is to check anyone who appears to be below a certain age, said age being somewhat arbitraty but selected to effectively cover those who could pass for the legal age but who aren’t clearly and obviously over that age. The sign in question merely advises customers of the “appearance age” the merchant has chosen for this.
It’s just a way of saying that they’ll check your ID if you look underage(18) and maybe even if you don’t.
Just a brief note that in the UK you can legally buy tobacco at age 16, and alcohol at age 18.
What’s the age for buying tobacco in the USA? I believe the age for alcohol is 21, right?
Yep. The age for tobaccy is 18.
I always get carded…but lately, “may I see some ID?” has started to be followed by “woah!” (I’m 33). :rolleyes: 
Last I was aware (and maybe it was just in CT, but I don’t think so) the law here was that if you looked under 27, you got carded, more to make sure that kids who looked a little older than 18 (but weren’t) didn’t slip through the cracks of cashiers using their discretion.
Which is understandable; when I was 16, I could pass for 21 rather easily.
A cite for the above. http://www.nccrimecontrol.org/newsrels/ALEFDA.html
When I turned 18, I wanted to be all suave and bust out my ID when the cashier asked, but he didn’t even bother to card me. :smack: