To all our under-age readers, I feel for you.  Understandably, alcoholic drinks are off-limits as they can be harmful to your growth at a young age.  But now, it seems the adults want to take away your non-alcoholic drinks as well according to a recent survey.

The survey was conducted by the Daiichi Mutual Life Insurance Institute of Economic Research who gauged the public’s fears that non-alcoholic drinks encourage the consumption of real alcohol at the request of beverage makers.

In the survey 1200 people between the ages of 30 and 40 who had under-aged children were asked “What’s a good age to start drinking non-alcoholic drinks?”

The top replies were:

Over 20                        (37.5%)
University (18-19)      (32.3%)
High School (15-17)   (17.3%)
Junior High (12-14)    (5.7%)

Of the people who responded that any age (from zero to over 20) was okay, the interviewer asked for a reason.

The top reasons were:

“There are no legal or health issues.”                     (31.9%)
“There is no reason to say no.”                                (31.1%)
“It’s a way for children to avoid actual drinking.”  (30.3%)

Of course this survey is referring to simulated alcoholic beverages like near-beer, but with the current range of alcopops available virtually any drink is a non-alcoholic something or other.  For example, Coke is a non-alcoholic “rum & coke” and orange juice is a non-alcoholic screwdriver.

With the development of more and more alcoholic drinks altered to match regular soft drinks, parents’ worries about getting hooked are rendered meaningless.  So if this survey were to somehow become law, kids would be left with only water to drink – maybe tea.

Source: MSN News (Japanese)
Picture : amazon.co.jp