Tasmac outlets near schools and colleges may be shutting down, but does it serve the intended purpose if it’s not that hard for the students to slip into pubs and restobars in the city? Many such bars rely on visual checks rather than automated systems to authenticate govt IDs.The legal age for drinking and purchasing alcohol in Tamil Nadu is 21 years. Club owners say the use of fake IDs by underage teenagers has become common, while mechanisms to detect them remain limited. “On average, we have 40-50 teenagers aged between 16 and 19 trying to come in,” says Rajiv Shah, partner at Sin and Tonic.“College IDs are easier to fake, so we insist on govt documents. Our general protocol is that we insist on an Aadhaar card, and if the ID is genuine, we let them in.”Other places such as Mannat Chennai are seeing teenagers throng their premises in huge numbers. “We have at least 80 teenagers attempting entry by saying they just want to eat. We won’t let them in. Our bouncers are trained to identify the special sticker on fake licences. We accept only Aadhaar, driving licence, and passport to admit entry,” says Pooja Sisodiya, partner at Mannat Chennai.Rajiv says they do not have any authenticator system or mechanism to verify whether the documents are genuine. “If we suspect someone is underage, we make them call their parents to verify. When we call some parents, they admit that their child is underage and ask us to permit them entry for a drink,” he adds.N Vimal*, 20, a student who has been faking IDs for the last three years, says bouncers at many clubs rely just on appearances. “When I was 17, I used to go drinking with my friends. We would befriend a person with an authentic ID and make him show it to the bouncer for verification. The rest of us would then slip in. It’s easier if you go with a group of girls. Now that I have a moustache, they don’t even stop me,” says Vimal.However, a few restobars are trying to tighten entry rules with a three-layer screening system that involves a bouncer checking for ID, an authentication system, and a manager to approve it, says Sanjeev Verma, managing partner of Black Orchid. “This system has been working wonders. We are also planning to set up an AI system to do the screening process, making it more thorough.”