Underage smokers should find comfort in the fact, that the more they smoke, the quicker they will age.

Heavy use of tanning booths (or just spending a lot of time in the sun) will also help develop those crucial wrinkles needed to fool the vending machine.

If all else fails (or if you are a 12-year old just starting your filthy smoking habit without older smoker friends to buy cigarettes for you), you can always try a little make-up.

as we all know at 19 you have no wrinkles and at 20 you have loads! my arse!

im 33 and i even get asked for ID occasionally while buying smokes. must be my boyish good looks eh :)

i just cant see how any machine can tell you someone's age just by a photo! i guess it just stops lots of 20somethings?

for ages verification why not just have it on bank cards - you DOB is known to the bank so why not? seems the most feasible one to me.

Ban cash sales. Credit card and PIN only. That way if kids are buying them it's with their Parent's implied consent.

After all, no matter how badly you ignore your kids and let them play up you'd not let them have your credit card.

It's the one with the wallet in the right hand pocket

Install huge speakers blasting out the special tone that kids can't stand and adults can't hear. Couple of hundred decibels should do it :)

Suddenly, smoking can seriously damage your health (and ears) will become more apparent.

Now I can go to Japan without fear of being harassed by those menacing youths with smokes and can be free to buy soiled panties and beer from the other vending machines.

What about just asking a random 20something to buy them for you like everyone else in the world does?

I turned 21 before all my pals in college and became the hooch man overnight. Made a quite a bit of spending cash that way actually.

Street machines (yes, they are on the street, and no, no yobs try to break them down) in Germany can only sell if you insert an authorised debit/credit card and from what I hear, the system actually works.

So there.

I remember seeing cigarette machines everywhere when I was a kid. My kids would have no idea what one was if they saw it. USA just did away with the machines altogether. Has there ever been 1 kid anywhere, anytime, that could not get a cig, if they wanted one? Restrictions only serve to teach work arounds. Educating the kids, make them watch grandpa die of cancer, that's what prevents kids starting smoking.

This article left me with the impression that it is getting harder for children to buy and therefore smoke cigarettes.

In the city where I live, there seem to be more children and young adults smoking cigarettes than there were this time last last year.

I assume there is now a well developed black market for buying cigarettes. If that sounds cynical, then ask yourself what a cigarette company would do when faced with advertising restrictions. Would they put they feet up and sigh and contemplate halcyon days, or would they get busy developing new distribution and marketing routes / means?

Many smokers buy cigarettes duty-free in bulk or buy them from people who import them by means of an undeclared business.

When people buy cigarettes in bulk, it is less likely that the odd missing packet (or three) will be noticed as missing.

It only takes one child in a class of kids whose parents smoke heavily and who turn a blind eye to the regular disapperance of some of their packets of cigarettes. There is also no shortage of children who are given 'guilt money' by parents. Buying a packet of cigarettes is easy for a child who wanders around with 30 quid or more in their pocket.

And what of the high-tech vending machines? A clear conscience for the tobacco companies? No trouble from politicians? A smoke-screen [sic] for society who will see the machines and then not even wonder at the increase in the young smoking population?

This is not a rant though... and time will tell if I was right. Look for an increase in the number of young smokers, or a change to the way official statistics are processed.

Not advanced enough as kids would start carrying aged mannequins or blowup dolls... :)

OK, so now kids will be carrying chairs as well!

The things kids will do for a pack of smokes...