Rideshares Uber and Lyft have policies to keep kids under age eighteen from riding, but our investigation reveals teens are riding with ease and with no questions asked.
"As long as you got money to pay, we'll pick you up," said one Lyft driver to two teenagers in the backseat of his car. The driver either didn't know or didn't care about rideshare company rules that prohibit minors to ride without an adult.
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With their parents permission, 16-year-old Zach Mobley and 17-year-old Sierra Isely tested the underage rules on Uber and Lyft. The high school students were never turned down for a ride and the teens even quizzed each driver.
Isley: "Is that a rule that you have to be 18 to get an Uber?"
Driver: "You probably have to be over 18 to provide them with payment information."
Mobley: "Oh yeah."
Driver: "But I know parents that have, you know, just put Uber on their kids' phones."
Parents who do that risk being banned by Uber and Lyft. The rideshare companies said that they run their own background checks on drivers, but we talked with parents in Beavercreek who have concerns.
"It makes me nervous to think that just anybody could pick up my child," said parent Jennifer Schmidt.
Beavercreek band director Matt Frost said, "There's no way I would put my kid in that situation."
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Although there are no official numbers, hundreds of incidents involving Uber and Lyft drivers have been tracked by the Taxicab, Limousine, and Paratransit Association, including 47 deaths since 2014 and 91 alleged assaults since 2013. When Massachusetts enacted a background check law last year, more than 8,200 of the state's 71,000 rideshare drivers failed, including 51 sex offenders and 334 convicted felons. Last December, an Uber driver was charged with raping an intoxicated 16-year-old rider in Georgia.
"That's just creepy. The idea of being younger than 18 to get into a car and there's no adult that you know," said 15-year-old freshman Erica Frost, daughter of Matt Frost.
Schmidt's daughter also balked at the thought of riding alone.
"It does scare me because it can happen to anybody. You never know it could happen to you. I just try to steer clear of that," said 16-year-old junior, Elyse Schmidt.
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Beavercreek High School Principal George Caras said he believes teens are more wary of strangers these days.
"Hallelujah! Some of our lessons are getting through," Caras said. "We couldn't really find any of our students that were using it."
He also said that the rideshare companies need to enforce the underage rules and drivers "have some onus of responsibility" to make sure riders are age eighteen.
Uber had an UberTEEN option as recently as last March, which allowed riders as young as 13 to join, but references to the service have been deleted from its website. However, a video promoting the service still exists at Uber's official YouTube page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAKmB8N1IMM
"There needs to be some sort of safety measure in place," said Sierra Isley, "More than there is right now."
"Just be careful and be safe," said Zach Mobley.
WHIO-TV reached out to police departments in the Miami Valley including Centerville, Oakwood, and Dayton and none of them reported any crimes involving teenagers and rideshare drivers.
Uber announced this month that the company will begin yearly criminal background checks of drivers in the U.S. The company is also adding features to it's app allowing riders to call 911 in case of an emergency and share their whereabouts with family and friends.