Surely kids wanting to go on an attack spree armed with a fork or knife (those knives couldnt even cut butter they're so blunt anyway) would nick said cutlery from the drawer at home - or from the canteen at school - rather than buy new?

Mad.

Tesco stores have long had such restrictions. As I understand it, the Criminal Justice Act 1998 states:

It is an offence for any person to sell to a person under the age of 16 any knife, knife blade, razor blade, axe or any other article which has a blade or is sharply pointed and which is made or adapted for causing injury to the person.

Granted, that probably doesnt include cutlery, but there is no harm in taking the precaution. I think in stores they do have the warnings posted up, but regardless the cashiers check (try buying some at self service). I think it just gets less coverage because they are not covered by the "Think 21" scheme, so few people get ID'd.

You can join the army go to war

Have a Family

But god help u if u want to have something to eat ur dinner with

... i'd pick one up and walk out.

Think those security nerds at the front desk will stop you? Half of them can barely manage to change the camera they're watching without dribbling.

Do you think the average Chav knows where the parents cutlery drawer is, surely they eat with their hands!

its always amazed me that you can have sex aged 16 but you can't watch other people having it until your 18...

So if you're sixteen and have left school and moved out to live on your own (or with others your age), you have to eat with your hands because you can't buy cutlery.

This is probably fortunate for you, however, because if you did buy a set of kitchen knives you could be locked up for a minimum of five years if the police decide to stop you while you're carrying them home.

Labour Government is doing very well in its quest to make everyone criminals so that everyone can be arrested (and will be afraid of being arrested) if they don't fit well with Gordon Brown's Age of Change.

Don't you have to be 18 to have a credit card and therefore shop online anyway?

They've had this policy in store for months. I bought a cheap set of 5 teaspoons (about as offensive as a banana) and went through the self serve checkout. It wouldn't let me buy them until someone came and verified I was over 18. The examples you have in your article at least include knives. Reminds me of an episode of the Simpsons:

"That's not a knife. *This* is a knife!"

"That's not a knife. That's a spoon!"

"Oh. I see you've played knifey, spoony before."

The Solo and Visa Electron debit cards are available to under 18s. Not all retailers (online and offline) accept them but some do.

Aha! So you've never fallen for the old trick while somewhat inder the unfluence of being invited to compete at a friendly, traditional game of "spoons" then?

Tip: If there's an iron ladle hanging innocently on the wall of the pub you're sat in at the time, leave.

The law says "has a blade or is sharply pointed **AND** which is made or adapted for causing injury to the person".

And yes there is harm in taking the precaution. It's another erosion of our liberties. It's another example of a retail chain deciding on who it's going to sell stuff to.

I thought that under 18s eat with their fingers anyway ... Tesco have agreed to sell only "handy" foodstuffs and things to lap-up as a contribution to the Security of this great nation ( the bull shit is Organic and always warm!)

Everyone knows the most potent silverware comes from the back of a van, in a dark alley, in the bad part of town.

Asda has had an age restriction on under 18s for nine months now... This is just another example of Tesco promoting none news to make it look like they're the first fuckers to do it...

"Granted, that probably doesnt include cutlery, but there is no harm in taking the precaution."

Apprentice tradesmen are unable to buy tools when laws like this are overinterpreted.

In fact, I recently read a story from one 17-year-old apprentice saying that he wasn't allowed to carry his own tools, so he often left them in the works van, and they got stolen quite frequently, and he couldn't buy new ones himself, and his colleagues were too busy to take the time out to buy them for him. If the works van broke down or the driver was sick, he lost a day's work because either his tools were in the van or they were in the house but he wasn't allowed to take them into the street.

All in all, whether this was the law or an overinterpretation of the law, he lost a lot of money (time=money) due to this.

One of my friends was IDed in Tesco for a Computer Game ages 3+. He was 21 and wasn't impressed...

Reminds me of the Flight of the Conchords song "Think About it"

"Well, at the end of your life, you are lucky if you die

Sometimes I wonder why I would even try

Why try

I saw a man lying on the street half dead

He had knives and forks sticking out of his leg

He said, Ahh ahh ahh ahhhhhhhhwww

Can somebody get the knife and fork out of my leg, please

Ooh, could somebody please remove these cutleries from my knees "