How to deal with young people drinking?

[AB Asks]

Childhood drinking has again turned up in the press, with claims that parents should do more to stop their kids from getting drunk from a young age. Is it as simple as telling the parents to keep more control of their children? Or perhaps should the drinking age be increased to 21? What approach do you take with your kids?

[miffy63]

I think the parents do have to accept much of the blame. Teenagers have too much money at their disposal and they often haven't even worked for it, I had to earn my pocket money as a kid.

As a society the British don't quite know how to handle alcohol, on the continent children are allowed to drink watered down wine with their meals and as far as I know they don't become teenage louts. Its not just the kids, adults in this country behave badly when they drink, it's like some people don't know when to stop.

Kids will always manage to get hold of drink, moving the legal drinking age to 21 won't stop that. I also read today that a police constable would like to have drinking outside in public banned ~ how is that going to help? It will just **** law abiding people off who know how to behave.

Parents need to start parenting their children, teach them to respect their elders and betters and to above all teach them some manners. The police also need to be able to do more in volatile situations, as a kid the police could give you a clip round the ear and you respected that, his word was law.

[jake-the-peg]

This was the suggestion by a senior Police officer wasnt it?

How many politicians will support raising the drinking age to 21 when the voting age is 18 - Hmmm let me think about that!

And of course we all know problem drinking magically stops when people reach 21 and we don't have underage drinkers now do we?

I know coppers seem to be getting younger all the time but are they getting thicker too?

[anotheoldgit]

I agree with most of what miffy63 has posted, except I tend to agree with that Policeman, a good start would be to ban the drinking of alcohol in the open. If it upsets some folk, tough.

Parents do need to take responsibilty also, how many times do you see parents turning a blind eye to their teenagers consuming alcohol at parties and barbecues, and then think it is somehow funny, when they start showing signs of being drunk?

And now we have banned smokers from pubs, the next step is to ban kids from pubs. Kids would not be allowed in a casino, so why are they allowed in pubs?

[wired]

Some parents are very responsible but can't be expected to monitor their children 24 hours a day, nor should they.The easy access to alcahol has been a problem for quite some time, with the number of off licences increasing and most teenagers will be able to tell you of somewhere that doesn't check their age. Many years ago the police used to have a quick check in pubs for under age drinkers but now it seems it's all down to the parents. I don't think that the rest of society should turn a blind eye either but if the last prime minister couldn't stop his son- who can?

[andy-hughes]

This is as much an issue of cultural attitudes as it is legalities.

Currently, we endure a culture where getting drunk is seen as a measure of a good night out. This attitude passes down the generations - encouraged by breweries, pubs, and the government.

We need to educate children out of the concept of drunkenesss as a socai activity to be enjoyed and encouraged.

Start putting money into nursery and primary education, and you sew the seeds of better adults, but that will never happen while successive governments regard nursery and primary education as glorified babysitting, and fund it accordingly.

Any society gets the adults it deserves from the way it regards, respects, and raises its children.

It's not difficult, it just takes some adjustment of attitudes from all involved.

[kwicky]

With soldiers being put on the front line in combat at 18 years old it would be hard to deny these teenagers the right to drink.

[Romeo]

The problem lies in the 'lad' image. Young men try to appear 'hard' (there are many sociological reasons for this, and they have to be acted on), and young women are attracted to 'hard' men. We have to get away from this idea that 'real' men get drunk and pick fights. Both men and women are to blame here, but how to break the cycle? Attitudes can be changed through education, the media and television, but it sometimes depends on who is sending the message. These days, rock bands and stand-up comedians have more street influence than politicians, but can you imagine a rock band or stand up comic saying it's naff to get drunk and pick fights? Can you imagine the audience cheering in agreement?