12-year-old alcoholics

[AB Asks]

Children as young as twelve are being diagnosed as alcoholics prompting worries that a generation could be permanently scarred from these teenager's antics. This latest claim over binge drinking comes as figures from the NHS show that everyday 15 boys and girls under 16 drink themselves into A&E. It is worried that the figures aren't showing all the problems caused by alcohol from pregnancies to teenagers being involved in violence. What do you think? Why do Britain's teenagers feel the need to drink themselves into hospital?

[Octavius]

Infamy, infamy!

Whilst I may come across as being pious, I don�t intend to, and I certainly wouldn�t pigeon hole myself as a Daily Mail reader either � were those infantile statements that aimed at me?? My point was about an individual�s social responsibility (with a slight variance to personal ecological responsibility).

Anyhoo, if my 12 year old child ended up hospitalised because of alcoholism, I would blame myself. I would of course be a rancorous individual seeking someone else to blame (mixing with the wrong crowd, the corner shop etc), but ultimately I would have to blame myself (or the wife!)

[Fiszi]

The strange thing is I think the more teenagers are told they can't have alcohol, the more they want to. Teenagers just want to rebel. I grew up with two alcoholic parents. I always had access to alcohol. I could have drunk when ever I felt like it but I never did. My sister is the same. I wasn't interested because when your parents are ok with it, the concept becomes boring.

I was discussing this with the landlord of a pub recently. He said his kids have always been able to help themselves. After all, how do you stop them when it's in their house and they've never had a problem either.

In France, kids have wine with their meals and it's normal. Again they don't have a problem.