Juvenile Binge Drinking - Media Hype or Alarming Development

Binge drinking of children and youths has developed into a heavily emotionalized media topic in recent years. This article shows that the age of onset into alcohol consumption has steadily decreased due to acceleration effects and argues whether this development justifies to expect more alcohol use disorders in this generation in future. Furthermore the lacking validity of common criteria to assess problem magnitude is elaborated. Finally the question is raised to what degree the topic is abused to lobby for specific alcohol policy decisions as well as for personal economic interests. Factually balanced and scientifically thorough tackling phenomena and sectionalizing emotionalization for advocacy purposes are fundamentally incompatible.