Youth are consistently bombarded with depictions of individuals consuming alcohol in party settings when they tune into shows, social media, and other forms of media.

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Have you heard of the "Call Her Daddy" Podcast? It is massively popular among teen girls. Spotify allegedly paid the host Alex Cooper around $25 million to move her show onto their platform. Well, not long ago, this YouTube video (Warning: Strong Language) came to my attention in which the interviewer, Alex Cooper, is doing “Truth or Shots” with a female guest.

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I realized just how pervasive alcohol images were online, when I was gathering material for Screenagers Under The Influence. Finding clips of people drinking alcohol from popular shows to include in the film was startlingly simple.

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We are all worried about the effect alcohol has on people's capacity to consent to sexual activities. Given this, it's troubling knowing that children are exposed to many TV shows that glamorize drinking in social situations. A 2022 study from Australia found that alcohol was depicted in 98% of the reality dating show episodes they analyzed.

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During adolescence, some teens will gather and have alcohol involved, whether that's at a park, in someone's house, or another inconspicuous location. While working on the documentary Screenagers Under The Influence, my film partner, Lisa, and I interviewed more than 100 parents to understand their strategies for parenting around alcohol use.

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There was a striking difference between parents’ answers and what the data reveals about what we should be saying and doing to help our youth make wiser decisions around alcohol.

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Today, I share a clip from Screenagers Under The Influence, in which three myths concerning parenting and alcohol are exposed. Often after screenings, parents come up to me and say how stunned they are to learn about the research. 

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Here is the 2 - minute clip:

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Transcript

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Delaney Ruston (voiceover)

Talking with parents, they often share their ideas of how to prevent their teens from overdrinking. And I uncover three things that turn out to be myths. The first is a common notion that in European countries like France, where the legal drinking age is younger, and the culture is more permissive, that teens learn to drink more responsibly. But, the rate of binge drinking among 15-year-olds is three times greater in France than in the United States.

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A second common myth is the idea that students will drink safer once they get to college if they've already started drinking in high school.

Joseph Labrie, PhD, Prof. of Psychology, Loyola Marymount University:

You'll hear this a lot from students, you'll also hear it from parents that, you know, the ones who never drank in high school, they go crazy once they get to college campus and they're the ones who are passing out. But that's not the reality of the gross data. The gross data says that the more you drink in high school, the more likely you are to increase your drinking in college and the more likely you are to have negative consequences.

Delaney Ruston (voiceover)

The third myth I've heard over and over is the idea that if teens are drinking socially, it's safe to drink at home.

Karen Palisades, PhD Adolescent Psychologist:

So, that has been debunked in the literature.

Sharon Levy, MD. Director of Adolescent Substance Use & Addiction Program, Prof. of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School:

When you put teens together, allowing them to use substances in the house, you can predict that they're going to be binge drinking. And when kids are binge drinking, it's very hard to keep them safe.

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Delaney Ruston (voiceover)

I find many studies that back this. One study found that in homes where senior high school girls were allowed to drink with friends, they were more likely to report binge drinking (during their) freshman year of college than those who weren't allowed to.

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Joseph Labrie, PhD, Prof. of Psychology, Loyola Marymount University:

Every year on college campuses, roughly 1,800 people die from some kind of alcohol related trauma and 600,000 students experience serious injuries when they've been drinking.

Questions to get the discussion started:

1. What are some of your favorite things to do when hanging out with friends that don't involve drinking or partying?
2. Have you ever noticed how often drinking is shown on reality TV shows and social media? What impact do you think that has on how teens view alcohol?
3. How do you feel about the idea that being allowed to drink at home could make teens more responsible drinkers? Can you think of any pros or cons based on what you've heard or experienced?
4. In your opinion, what's the best way for someone your age to stay safe in situations where there might be pressure to drink?

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As well as our weekly blog, we publish videos like this one every week on the Screenagers YouTube channel