ATLANTA --- You could be Betty Boop for a day, adopt the swagger of James Dean or even pretend you're Britney Spears. Or a 16-year-old could hop online and age himself a few years to buy a six-pack for friends on a Friday night.
Any of these scenarios is possible thanks to the online market for fake IDs.
State law permits them as long as they are branded with the word "novelty," but one legislator wants to do away with the loophole.
"We're looking, quite simply, to remove novelty licenses from being legal," said Rep. Burke Day, R-Chatham, who is sponsoring House Bill 71. "We have no idea how much taxpayer money has been wasted because of these licenses."
Gag gifts, such as licenses to ride a bike or saddle up a pony, are easily attainable online, but so are fake driver's licenses and passports.
"It's proving to be far more costly and problematic than we ever realized. The safest way is just to do away with them," said Mr. Day, the chairman of the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.
University of Georgia Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said novelty IDs make the problem of underage drinking worse.
"It makes sense to me (to pass this bill), when we look at it from an underage consumption standpoint," he said. "But when you look at people who have committed identity theft fraud or voter registration fraud, I can see a number of applications why lawmakers think this is a good law."
If the bill passes and is signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue, novelty IDs will be outlawed beginning Oct. 9.
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'Bout time somebody wised up.
This bill is shameful and worthless. Actually, it's worse than worthless, it's dangerous. This bill would put a burden on police officers and would make scofflaws of us all. This bill should not be passed. While it should be a crime to sell alcohol or tobacco to minors, and it should be a juvenile offense for a minor to attempt to pass as genuine a fake ID, it should NOT be a crime to have a novelty license in my pocket.