I’m currently enjoying the British show Inbetweeners. In it, the teenagers seem to engage in quite a bit of sanctioned drinking, including at school events where they could each have 2 beers. What are the laws for younger people drinking in England? How does that work? (I’m trying to figure whether I would’ve drunk more or less if it were legal. I’m guessing somewhat more.)
I know US is prudish about such things, but what are the laws in other countries?
It’s legal in the UK. The kids in the Inbetweeners are 6th-formers - right? So they’d be expected to be over 16. FWIW though, having alcohol at school events doesn’t match what I remember of high school in the UK (though the mores in Scottish girls’ schools are probably a bit different from English comprehensives)
Dinsdale.
i remember when the girl who played hermoinie <sp> had a pint in a pub with her parents about the time of the 4th movie and everyone over here was in spasms until all the brit papers explained it was legal since her parents were there and after she was 16 she could order it on her own…
Note that many of the countries indicated as “18” aren’t quite “you can’t drink any alcohol at 17 years and 364 days old”; aside from religious exceptions (yes, kids can have wine as part of Communion), in Spain the actual limits are set by region; many countries have scaled regs which allow low-alcohol drinks at lower ages but any-content at 18.
Drinking in private is fine for kids over 5 (I know), so assuming a school event is a private affair and the parents are ok with it, it would be legal for them to drink.
It’s legal to drink beer or wine with a meal in a restaurant, if accompanied by adults.
Otherwise, buying alcohol is over 18 only.
We are very unprudish about young people drinking, for better or worse. We all started drinking in pubs way before we were 18. I wonder if pubs are stricter these days?
That site seems to be a hotbed of popups, loud sounds and questionable, possibly scammy and dangerous messages. You have been warned.
The point about the situation in the OP had rather passed me by, but as long as the school wasn’t running it as a cash bar, it seems to me it must be counted as a private occasion with the youngsters under some sort of adult supervision. There might be repercussions for the school and teachers if trouble developed as a resut of over-consumption and if the police had to be involved, but otherwise no-one “official” would be interested.
As for pubs being strict, it all depends. In places (usually city and town centre pubs) where there has been trouble from bunches of lairy youngsters out on the lash, they quite often run schemes demanding ID (or threatening to) if you look as though you might be, not just under the legal age, but under 21, or in some places in central London, under 25. They could lose their licences (and some do) if they’re found to be selling drink to people under age or already intoxicated.
I was drinking in a small bar in Dominica and wondered about their laws, as the bartender was a boy in his early teens. I asked him how old you had to be to drink in a bar and he totally didn’t understand the question. I rephrased, but still my question made no sense. So I asked, “if a ten year old came in and ordered a beer, would you serve him?”
The question made no sense to him, because a ten year old wouldn’t have money to buy a beer.
I think in Sixth form in England, many children reach 18, the drinking age in the UK, so thus the pupils can actually purchase and consume drinks.
I’m not completely sure of the structure, since I’m Scottish, and our version of Sixth year was at the age of 17 for me, but we seemed to run a year ahead of England.
And all of this might well have changed since I went to school too.
Yeah - the ages/grades weren’t entirely clear to me, but it was pretty clear that the main characters were under 18. 16 or 17 I supposed. A couple of instances that were “foreign” to this American, were the school party, where each student was given 2 beer tickets. Also, the students often went to pubs. In the US, HS kids would not be welcomed into most bars (at least when not with their parents.) In a pub, the students were allowed to buy beer so long as they bought a full meal.
Overall, the series (yeah - comic fiction, I know) portrayed a pretty casual attitude to youth drinking. Various adults - parents and teachers - gave alcohol to students - some much younger than 16-17. And it seemed like drinking was very tolerated by adults both at house parties and other events (an under 18 social, and a “caravan club”.) This Yank just wondered how close to the truth these aspects were.
And Patrick, I gotta admit, having bunches of lairy youngsters out on the lash isn’t a problem I’ve ever been aware of (not that I’m exactly sure what that means!) 
From my own UK experience of youthful adventures that’s all pretty representative.
Certainly from the age of 14 my local pub was the equivalent of a youth club. We didn’t have much cash but what we had went on pool, jukebox, pinball, beer and crisps. The landlord knew how old we were but as long as we limited ourselves and caused no trouble they were happy enough.
Heck, I was the top points scorer of “The Red Well” darts team when I was 15 and travelled the pubs of the north-east with them, the normal end of game ritual was to buy the loser a pint and that is what I did and what everyone did for me too, perfectly normal.
The police did drop by now and again but they judged their response to how rowdy we were and turned a blind eye to the drinking itself. When you think about it, would they rather that a dozen young lads were out on the street or playing pool in the pub and bothering no-one? On a couple of occasions they did ask us…literally…to “drink up” but that was very much the exception and only when there were too many of us and the noise inevitably grew.
In my own state, vic.aus, for reasons that escape me, they’ve just removed the exemption for under 18 drinking in a bar or restaurant, when your parents buy drinks for you.
They’ve also recently terrified the bar owners into not selling drinks with alcoholic flavouring (vanilla, bitters) to kids, even though that is clearly legal: I can only guess that it’s a combination of severe penalties and lack of trust of the bar staff.
If you look like you’re over 18, you probably won’t be able to get away with buying drinks as you could when I was 16. You certainly won’t be able to get away with buying cigarettes or being around slot machines unless you’re starting to show some sun damage.
Very close to real life. I’m a nice middle class woman in my 40s, who went to a private all-girls’ school. A few anecdotes.
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When I lived in Europe in the late 80s/early 90s the drinking rules were mostly seen as suggestions. In Belgium you could (can?) drink at pretty much any age if you were with a parent/guardian. It wasn’t unusual for a wine glass to be put in front of the kids if my dad ordered a bottle of wine in a restaurant.
On a school trip to Greece one of the kids asked our teacher if he would buy us a glass of ouzo to share so that we could taste it. He looked at the group of twelve 13-15 year olds and ordered two glasses so that there would be enough.
I am not sure if this attitude is good or bad. There is definitely no social stigma associated with having a beer with lunch and drinking isn’t hidden from kids. But on a recent trip to London it seemed that half the population were functional alcoholics.
We took two of my nephews out for sushi one night at a local place that is BYOB. I brought two bottles of wine to allow my gf to choose which we’d have with dinner.
When our waiter was arranging our place settings, he gave a stern look at my nephews and asked if they were 18. One was 18, the other 19, so he gave them wineglasses (Pennsylvania drinking age was/is 21).
Turns out bringing two bottles was the correct move.
The drinking law in Britain that irritates me is the one posted in every barroom: “POUR THE DRINK BY EXACT MEASURE.”
In the rest of the civilized world you can chat with the barkeep and he’ll give you a strong pour if he likes you. If you’re starting to slur your words he can give you a short pour. What’s the point of turning a bartender into a damn baker, with science measures?
You can buy a beer (or a bottle of whisky) in the vending machines here in Japan. It’s a wonder every school kid isn’t smashed.
I’m gonna slightly disagree with some of the other English posters here- I’m younger’n most of you, and they’re really starting to tighten up a bit now on underage drinking.
Friends that are currently in their early 20s generally say that they never bought alcohol before 18, and react with surprise when I say I used to go to nightclubs from 16, possibly due to the penalty increases for selling it to underage kids which came in a few years ago.
My own school (also a posh-type girls’ school) did have ‘cheese and wine’ evenings (I was in the choir, which performed at them, so my parents went despite it really not being their thing), but they certainly wouldn’t serve students under 18- they weren’t going to stop parents giving kids a sip, but they were definitely trying to stop even the 16-17 year olds from having a glass. At the time, there was one pub in town notorious for serving anyone who could stand up, best out of 3, and my school would occasionally send teachers there to check for underage students from their school; being found there would get you detention. A friend’s 15 year old kid got suspended for a week last year for bringing alcohol into school.
Acceptance of underage drinking is still around, but there’s a pretty widespread attempt to tighten up.