Objectives
In the UK, fewer adolescents are drinking (from 61% having ever had an alcoholic drink in 2001 to 54% in 2007) but those who do drink are drinking more frequently and in greater quantities than in the past. The average consumption has risen to 11 units a week amongst the 14% that drink regularly. Drinking to drunkenness (also known as 'binge drinking') is a problem among young people with 14% of 15-16 year olds regularly getting drunk*.
Talk About Alcohol has been developed by EdComs, an educational consultancy, and edited by Alcohol in Moderation, which works with a group of twenty specialist Professors from around the world, communicating with consumers regarding drinking guidelines, the law and health issues via www.drinkingandyou.com and a database of programmes and research via www.alcoholinmoderation.com
The specific objectives of the website are to:
- improve young people's understanding of alcohol, and its effect on the immature body
- increase knowledge and awareness of the risks associated with alcohol consumption by those who are under age
- raise awareness among young people of the laws restricting the consumption of alcohol, and why these exist
- raise awareness of the choice not to drink as a choice in relation to alcohol.
Over the longer term the Talk About Alcohol programme, together with the efforts of many different people and organisations, should contribute to a sustainable change in behaviour by young people. This might include: reducing the prevalence of 'binge drinking'; ensuring that alcohol is consumed in moderate and safe quantities; or delaying the onset of regular drinking behaviour among those who are under the legal drinking age.
[* Source: DCSF consultation on children, young people and alcohol 2009]
