The stakes are high for bouncers — letting even one underage person into a bar or club could mean a hefty fine. That’s why they have so many tricks to suss out fake IDs. They’ll ask what your sign is, or what the address on the card is, or when your appearance radically changed. But recently, UK bouncers have discovered an even more effective way to check if you are who your ID says you are: they’ll ask for your phone, and see whose Facebook account it’s signed into.
At first glance, this might seem like a huge invasion of privacy. It is, but remember, clubbing isn’t an inalienable right. To get into venues, you’ve got to play by the venue’s rules. And it’s not like the bouncer is going to read your messages — he’s got a line of people waiting that needs to keep moving. The real risk is that he’ll silently judge your profile picture and feed. It’s even plausible that at certain exclusive clubs, you won’t get behind the velvet rope if you’ve got a mediocre profile. But most likely, it’s just a convenient (although easily spoofed) way to let the legal people inside and keep the underage kiddies out.
If you’ve ever needed to hand over your phone to a very large and intimidating person to get in somewhere, tell us in the comments! [BBC]
Image via David Clark Digital Photography/Shutterstock