Sir, – The objective of the advertising measures contained in the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill is to protect children in Ireland from exposure to alcohol marketing, not to interfere with the ability of adults to choose between brands (November 15th).
Research conducted by NUI Galway found more than half of schoolchildren reported that they were exposed to four or more alcohol advertisements per day. The vast majority were exposed to traditional or offline alcohol advertising, while 77 per cent of the children were also exposed to online alcohol advertising.
The current systems of advertising self-regulation are failing to protect children from daily exposure to alcohol marketing, which can be a sophisticated and powerful influence on their drinking behaviour and expectations.
Marketing can shape youth culture by creating and sustaining expectations and norms about how to achieve social or sporting success, how to celebrate, how to relax and how to belong.
Comprehensive evidence from longitudinal studies, which follow people over time, clearly indicates a causal relationship between alcohol marketing and drinking behaviour.
For children, exposure to alcohol marketing, including advertising, sponsorship and many other forms of promotion, increases the likelihood that they will start to drink alcohol earlier and to drink more if they have already started.
Children, as they are still developing, are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of alcohol, both in terms of their physical and mental health, including the risky behaviour that often goes hand-in-hand with alcohol consumption at a young age.
Meanwhile, the younger a child is when they start to drink alcohol the greater the risk that they will develop harmful drinking patterns later in life.
For these reasons, a key objective of public health policy is to delay the age of initial alcohol consumption by children.
The Growing Up In Ireland study recently released the key findings resulting from a survey of children first looked at aged nine and who are now aged 17 and 18. The survey shows that children who start drinking alcohol earlier are more likely to drink more frequently – and to consume more alcohol when drinking – than those who start drinking alcohol later.
For example, of the 16 per cent who had had a drink at 13 years of age, 62 per cent of those now drank two to four times per month or more, compared with 47 per cent who had not had alcohol by age 13.
At a briefing for the Oireachtas Cross-Party Group on Alcohol Harm earlier this year, the Children’s Rights Alliance, Barnardos and the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children all expressed their support for the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill.
Tanya Ward, chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance, said “Creating an environment where children are protected from this alcohol marketing is an urgent children’s rights issue”. – Yours, etc,
CONOR CULLEN,
Head of Communications
and Advocacy,
Alcohol Action Ireland,
Coleraine House,
Coleraine Street,
Dublin 7.