Drinks Ireland has announced that it has recently signed up to a number of commitments to tackle underage drinking such as 'reducing the exposure of young people to alcohol online by continuing to work with digital platforms to implement rigorous online safeguards.'
The group that represents the Irish drinks industry said that it will support the clear and direct actions announced by the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD), as part of a new drive to accelerate efforts to reduce underage drinking globally.
The other actions that will be taken to tackle underage drinking include:
- The introduction of clear age-restriction symbols or equivalent words on all alcohol products, including no-alcohol variants. This will start to be rolled out immediately, with compliance across all markets by 2024.
- The industry will continue to work with leading digital platforms, to implement rigorous online safeguards in its ongoing efforts to prevent minors from seeing or interacting with alcohol brands online. Safeguards will be in place for at least 95% of online alcohol marketing by 2024.
- The industry will not market alcohol-free extensions of alcohol brands to anyone underage.
- The industry will seek to work with online retailers, postal services, and delivery companies to develop a global code of conduct for the online sale and delivery of alcohol.
Underage Drinking Decline
The news comes following the release of new figures earlier this month that show that underage alcohol consumption has declined substantially in Ireland.
The Irish study was commissioned by the Department of Health and carried out by the Health Promotion Research Centre at NUI Galway.
Research shows that this decline forms part of a longer-term trend as a previous WHO report on Adolescent related behaviours found that alcohol consumption among teenagers in Ireland went from 12.7% in 2002 to 4.1% in 2014.
“Ireland is moving in the right direction when it comes to underage drinking, which is something we are proud to have done our part in achieving," said Patricia Callan, director of Drinks Ireland.
“For example, since 2003, the industry has proudly adhered to some of the strictest advertising codes in the world for both content and volume of alcohol advertising. These rules, among other things, have meant that no alcohol advertising can target young people."
Callan concluded: “We are proud to sign up to IARD’s commitments today on behalf of the Irish drinks industry.”
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
