[Anchor]

As the number of unmanned stores grows, unmanned e-cigarette shops are appearing in various locations. However, with identity verification procedures being extremely lax, there is growing concern that these stores are becoming a gateway for juvenile delinquency.

JTV reporter Jeong Sang-won has the story.

[Reporter]

The store is packed with e-cigarette vending machines. As it is an unmanned store operated without staff, customers must insert their ID cards into the machine to purchase cigarettes.

We tested whether adult verification is being properly conducted.

The ID card in my hand is not a real one, but a fake ID printed on a regular sheet of A4 paper.

I will insert this fake ID into the scanner.

As you can see, the vending machine scanner fails to distinguish the fake ID. There is also no way to prevent the use of someone else's ID card.

This is because there are no technical guidelines in place, such as fingerprint recognition, to filter out fake IDs.

Under these circumstances, e-cigarette vending machines are being misused as a channel for teenagers to purchase cigarettes.

[Teenager: Since there is no owner and no one to check IDs, I think there are quite a few kids who use their older brothers' IDs or take their parents' IDs without them knowing.]

Although the Tobacco Business Act was recently amended to subject e-cigarettes to the same regulations as regular cigarettes, anyone can install an unmanned vending machine anywhere as long as they are designated as a tobacco retailer.

Because of this, authorities do not even have a basic grasp of how many cigarette vending machines are currently in the province or where they are located.

[Jeonbuk State official: There are no countermeasures in place right now. Since we only receive reports for tobacco retail registration, it seems difficult for us to handle that (prevention of ID theft).]

In the blind spot of enforcement and management, the rapidly increasing number of unmanned e-cigarette vending machines is becoming a primary culprit in encouraging teenage smoking.

(Video by Kwon Man-taek, JTV)

Reported by Jeong Sang-won, JTV