Vienna Employs Teenagers as Test Buyers from 2025
A corresponding amendment to the Vienna Youth Protection Act is currently under review. It is to be passed in the Vienna Parliament in April of the coming year, as the responsible city councilor Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS) informed APA.
Tobacco, Gambling & Co: Vienna Allows Teenagers to Make Test Purchases
Specifically, the Addiction and Drug Coordination will be enabled to check whether so-called youth-endangering items are being handed over to persons under 18 years of age. This is also intended to sensitize and inform companies and staff about youth protection, it was said.
With the amendment, it is now expressly permitted to hire people who are too young to buy cigarettes, for example. In this case, there is no administrative offense, as is explicitly stated in the law. However, some prerequisites are necessary for a legal test deployment.
For example, legal guardians must expressly agree to this. The test buyer must also be trained and accompanied by an adult. And: The teenagers are not allowed to keep anything. "The goods must be handed over by the test buyer to the accompanying person immediately after the purchase", it is emphasized.
Prohibition of Nicotine Pouches Specified in Amendment
Furthermore, the amendment includes an explicit ban on nicotine pouches. This should eliminate misunderstandings about tobacco-free products on offer, it was said. It is thus clarified that all nicotine products fall under the youth ban.
So far, the Vienna Youth Protection Act did not contain an explicit ban on participation in gambling and betting for young people, except for gaming machines. It is now specified that the ban applies not only to machines.
"It is important to us to protect young people in Vienna as best as possible. We know that gambling on the one hand, but also nicotine products pose a risk of addiction that can significantly negatively affect a young person's life," Wiederkehr emphasized. Therefore, the law is now being tightened.
(APA/Red)
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