RESEARCH has revealed that around 15 per cent of boys and eight per cent of girls said they had their first drink before the age of 13. These figures are a timely reminder as calendars wind down to the end of the year and teenagers’ social diaries fill up with end-of-school parties (or matric holidays), after-parties or parties hosted by friends or friends’ family.
It is not uncommon for alcohol to be consumed by teenagers at these gatherings the researchers found. The research, from the 2012 University of South Africa (UNISA) Youth Research Unit Substance Abuse Survey, shows that a significant number of teenagers in the average South African home have at some stage experimented with alcohol, but that the vast majority of parents believe their kids do not drink.
The South African Breweries (SAB) runs You Decide, an interactive underage drinking roadshow, which aims to help educate teenagers about the dangers of consuming alcohol and equip them with various techniques on how to avoid peer pressure and to make the right choices in life.
Here’s a checklist to keep your child safe if he or she is going to a party:
- Contact the parents holding the party and check on the facts concerning the event. Talk to your children about your expectations and the consequences of them not living up to it.
- Do not give your children large amounts of cash.
- You (or a trusted parent) should pick them up at the agreed time but they should also know that they can phone you at any stage if they need to leave.
- Sleep overs are a no-no, unless you have reason to trust the host family completely. Check last minute sleep-over plans very thoroughly with the host parents.
- Be awake when your children return home, or have them wake you. Talk to them for a while.
