Metro Creative image

HOUGHTON – Alcohol consumption by children under the age of 20 is a conversation few parents and adults feel comfortable having with their kids. Yet, according to a report published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), conversations like these should start with children as young a nine years old.

The report says children start to think positively about alcohol between ages 9 and 13.

“The more young people are exposed to alcohol advertising and marketing, the more likely they are to drink, and if they are already drinking, this exposure leads them to drink more,” Time Magazine reported in August, 2025. “Therefore, it is very important to start talking to children about the dangers of drinking as early as 9 years of age.”

The AAP study also found that 80% of adolescents say their parents are the biggest influence on whether they drink or not, which suggests parents have a role as well – both positive and negative.

Many surveys and studies have revealed that often, children steal alcohol from their parents’ stores.

Susan Foster, assistant director of Substance Use Prevention with the Alice Aycock Poe Center for Health Education in North Carolina says the home is a common place that youth access alcohol, often without parents knowing.

“Youth will water down liquor bottles so that changes in volume aren’t detected, and rely on their parents losing count of beers in the family refrigerator,” Foster reported. “Youth who want to access alcohol are counting on these tricks to have their drinking go unnoticed.”

Houghton County Treatment Court Grant Project Director, and former prevention specialist and drug Counselor with the Western U.P. Health Department, Gail Ploe has found that as well. “Access,” Ploe said. “Access is the Number One reason kids will take a look at the peers they’re hanging with,” Ploe said, “and if those kids are drinking, and they have access to alcohol, it’s not a good thing to assume that ‘my kid would never (drink).”

Ploe said kids are curious, and they experiment. If they have access to alcohol, it’s more likely that they will drink.

Foster reported that two-thirds of youth who access alcohol get it from a residential home.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) reports that teenage drinking is a serious public health crisis, as alcohol is the most misused substance among youth, causing over 4,300 deaths annually in the U.S.

Mayo Clinic reported in Dec. 2023 that more than 29 million people ages 12 and older have alcohol use disorder (alcoholism), and estimated 894,000 adolescents ages 12 to 17 have alcohol use disorder. The disorder is identified by patterns of alcohol use that involve a problem controlling drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol and continuing to use alcohol even after it causes problems.