Fast food delivery itself is not age-restricted, but where it includes alcohol as part of the order, it will fall within some of the stricter requirements for age-verification
Some suppliers deliver directly using their own workforce. Other use third party couriers under contract. And some deliveries are made by services with no legal relationship with the restaurant other than simply being a customer in their own right (“personal service” companies).
Ultimately the restaurant itself is the licence-holder, and must exercise due care in ensuring it does not serve underage customers, either directly or through a third party.
UK: Licensing Act 2003
The location where the alcoholic drinks are physically added to the order will require a Premises Licence
UK: Mandatory Licensing Conditions
EU: GDPR (in force today)
You should be sure that your users are at least old enough to give consent for their personal data to be processed, if you rely on consent under Article 8 of GDPR, as a basis for processing some or all personal data you obtain from your users. (Remember, personal data even includes just an IP address.) In the UK, this “age of digital consent” is 13 but it varies between EU member states so if you have users in the EU, you will need to also determine their location and apply the relevant age as part of this check.
Age Appropriate Design Code (in force today, but grace period in operation in the UK until 2 September 2021)
This requires sites to consider if they could risk the moral, physical or mental well-being of children under 18. And if so, to put in proportional measures to safeguard children and young people.
Where adults can interact with minors, there is a risk of grooming, the inappropriate exchange of photographs and conversations etc. Indeed, research shows that this is increasingly a problem between minors as well.
As dating sites facilitate physical encounters (by definition), there may also be a physical risk if children agree to meet others through the service.
Our opinion is that dating sites clearly require age verification to be in place to keep children from using the service. The rigor required is a matter for the judgement of the sites concerned – giving consideration to the nature of the content on the site, the number of users under 18 found to be using it, etc. But given the reputational risk if a child is harmed by your service, we recommend at least a standard level of assurance. See our page on levels of assurance for an explanation of the methods of age verification that achieve this degree of confidence in an age check.
Online Safety Bill (only draft legislation, not yet passed by Parliament)
As dating sites allow users to interact and share content such as photographs, they are in scope for the Online Safety legislation.
As dating sites are also “likely to be used by Children” they must comply with the further duties applicable. (Remember, children are defined as under 18-years-old.)
The largest sites may be considered Category 1 sites, with additional duties placed on them.
Please read our briefing on the Online Safety Bill for further explanation of these new duties.