kirsty&al

Hello All,

One of the bizarre facts I picked up ages ago is that the legal age for drinking alcohol at home in the UK is 5. I did some digging and found the following rules:

ALCOHOL AND THE LAW- UK
- Under 5 may not be given alcohol except on medical orders.
- 5+ may consume alcohol at home or in registered private clubs.
- Under 14 may not be present in a bar unless accompanied by someone over 18, it is before 9pm and the bar has a children's certificate.
- 14+ may be in a bar of licensed premises during the permitted hours.
- 16+ may purchase beer, port, cider or sherry with a meal in an eating area on licensed premises.
- Under 18 may not purchase, be supplied with, or consume alcohol in a bar.
- Under 18 may not purchase alcohol from an off-license, supermarket or wholesaler.

Does anyone know the rules in OZ, or is it all 18?

Also, out of interest, is the age of consent the same as the UK (I know the US has a different age of consent)?

Regards
Alistair

ABCDiamond

Have a look at this page for some of the NSW rules:
http://www.dgr.nsw.gov.au/HTML/YOUTHPAGE/youthpage.html

Some extracts:

• The legal drinking age in Australia is 18 years
• Under 18s are allowed into hotels - and other licensed and club premises - under certain circumstances
• A second party sale occurs when a person supplies alcohol to a minor - either free at a private party in a home (for example) or after being asked by a minor to buy alcohol on the minor's behalf. The person who supplies the alcohol to the minor is committing a second party sale offence and is liable to a maximum penalty of $5,500 - or $11,000 and/or 12 months prison if (for example) young children or large amounts of alcohol are involved. On-the-spot fines of $550 can also be issued by police.

Ceri

It's pretty much the same laws here that's in the Uk, not a lot of diff
18 to buy it
technically a child can drink in their own home - but if a parent gives drink to a young child/baby, or plies their kids with drink they could be prosecuted under the child abuse acts.

most social clubs allow children in before a certain time, then they have to vacate by so and so time.

US is 21

kirsty&al

Thanks to you both.

Al.

kiwichild

I thought the US laws vary from state to state and are two tiered in some eg; Can buy beer and wine at 18 but not allowed to purchase "hard liquor" until 21. That would also make 21 the age allowed to enter a bar.

But then times change.

NJJ

I live in quite a rural area and you will find that in "the bush", pubs act as community gathering facilities where usually on friday nights and occasionally other days e.g. sunday, anzac day the pubs will be flooded with familys and are very child friendly. In the cities and urban areas however this is very different and the pubs are more geared toward over eighteen clientele.