Businesses exempt from penalties for selling to minors with fake ids

[Anchor]

If it is revealed that convenience stores or restaurants sold alcohol or tobacco after being deceived by fake identification cards presented by teenagers, they may be exempt from business suspension.

In the future, this measure will be expanded to include lodging establishments and 24-hour jjimjilbangs.

This is a report by reporter Kim Ha-eun.

[Report]

This is a lodging establishment in Busan.

In September of last year, the owner checked the identification cards of a male and female guest who entered together and rented them a room.

However, the two were minors using stolen identification cards.

The owner was investigated by the police for allowing minors to stay together and received a two-month business suspension from the district office.

[Lodging establishment owner/voice altered: "If I hadn't checked, I would have accepted it and just moved on, we would have. But even after going through all the verification procedures, a penalty was imposed, so it's just absurd."]

From now on, business owners who are deceived by fake identification cards and allow teenage guests to enter will be exempt from administrative penalties such as business suspension.

Previously, this applied only to certain places like convenience stores and restaurants that sell alcohol and tobacco, but the scope has now been expanded to all establishments that require age verification, including lodging establishments and 24-hour jjimjilbangs.

[Kim Jin-woo/Secretary General of the Korea Lodging Association: "Since the lodging business operators are older, there are cases where they can't distinguish if someone is a teenager, and they have been penalized for that... From our perspective, this is something we have strongly requested to be reflected...."]

Additionally, it has been included that if a guest refuses to present identification, the owner can restrict their entry.

[Kwak Soon-hun/Director of Health Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare: "The condition that the duty of care regarding the verification of teenagers has been fulfilled must be established... (to be exempt from administrative penalties.) If it is confirmed during the investigation that the teenager intentionally induced illegal acts...."]

However, the government plans to establish specific criteria and scope to prevent the abuse of the exemption.

This is KBS News, Kim Ha-eun.