Alcoholics Anonymous Reviews

Did you know the Children's Television Standards bans alcohol advertisements on daytime TV?

But another set of industry standards over-rides that ban to allow our kids to see alcohol advertising during live daytime sport on weekends.

It is ridiculous to think in Australia we have at least seven codes and standards that control our advertising, most of which are unenforceable.

It seems the main function of these codes is to confuse the public, not to look after our kids.

The reality is our kids are not protected from the influence of alcohol marketing.

Research shows children under 12 see one in three of all the TV alcohol ads while teenagers under 18 years have seen the same level of alcohol advertising as a young adult of 18-24 years of age.

Is it right that Australian children and teenagers under the legal drinking age are exposed to high levels of alcohol advertising on television?

A report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found 72 per cent of people support restricting TV advertising of alcohol until after 9.30pm and 71 per cent support adding health information labels to alcohol.

Today in Melbourne, expert witnesses will give evidence on this issue in a Senate committee hearing that is looking into proposed alcohol advertising restrictions and alcohol warning label requirements.

The alcohol industry knows TV advertising is powerful.

That's why they spend more than $40 million a year on TV advertising.

But the problem is that almost 40 per cent of TV alcohol advertising occurs during the day when children and young people are likely to see it.

Consider this; alcohol kills three times more Australians than all illicit drugs combined, and it costs Australia $15.3 billion a year mopping up after excessive drinking.

Given we have such a huge problem with under-age drinking, surely it makes sense to stop exposing our kids to such high levels of alcohol advertising and restrict TV advertising to after 9pm.

It also makes sense to have health information labels on all alcohol products even though the big alcohol companies oppose them.

Alcohol companies print information on bottles or cans showing the number of standard drinks. That's great.

But let's face it, how can families make good use of that information without knowing the number of standard drinks they can have without damaging their health?

The big alcohol corporations oppose health information labels, but they already have to print them on alcohol exported to the United States.

Soon they will be required to put health information on alcohol exported to Britain. So why do they object to providing information to Australians?

The problem is alcohol companies and advertisers quite naturally pursue their own interests, which are not always what's best for the rest of us and our kids.

That is why Family First has proposed new laws that would restrict alcohol advertising to after 9pm and require a health warning label to be placed on all alcohol products.

These changes to our laws would help curb problem drinking and promote a culture of responsible drinking.

Herald Sun