Patsouras Maree, Kuntsche Emmanuel, Pennay Amy, O'Brien Paula, Riordan Benjamin
Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Australas Psychiatry. 2025 Jun;33(3):333-335. doi: 10.1177/10398562251314692. Epub 2025 Jan 20.
The federal Australian government has introduced legislation to require social media platforms to restrict access to their platforms for young people under 16 years of age. Amongst the conversations about protecting the health and wellbeing of young people, we have yet to see discussion on the impact of alcohol imagery as a pervasive 'unhealthy' industry on social media. This is problematic because young people consume a large amount of social media content and are exposed to glamorised alcohol depictions and targeted advertising. According to current regulations, the sponsoring of social media posts by alcohol companies should be declared, but enforcement of these requirements is challenging and most alcohol posts (whether sponsored or not) tend to glorify alcohol use. Better regulation, but not necessarily a social media ban, is needed to protect young viewers from pervasive alcohol exposure on social media.
澳大利亚联邦政府已出台立法，要求社交媒体平台限制16岁以下青少年访问其平台。在关于保护年轻人健康和福祉的讨论中，我们尚未看到有关酒精形象作为社交媒体上一个普遍存在的“不健康”行业所产生影响的讨论。这是个问题，因为年轻人消费大量社交媒体内容，会接触到美化的酒精描绘和定向广告。根据现行规定，酒精公司对社交媒体帖子的赞助应予以声明，但这些要求的执行具有挑战性，而且大多数酒精相关帖子（无论是否有赞助）往往会美化饮酒行为。需要更好的监管，而不一定是社交媒体禁令，以保护年轻观众免受社交媒体上普遍存在的酒精曝光影响。
