Hacker News Reader

Comment by RobotToaster | Hacker News Reader

In most of Europe it's legal for Children to drink alcohol.

True, but misleading. There are practical blocks to children drinking alcohol: they can't buy it from shops or bars. In the UK, you can buy it from 18, and you can consume it in a pub/restaurant from 16 but only with a meal and supervised by an adult. In France, you can buy it in bars from 16.

An analogy would be that social media consumed by children is surely less harmful when it's a parent holding their own phone towards a child to show them a few selected photos from their Instagram feed. I doubt most people would object to that, even those that want to ban social media from children.

> In the UK, you can buy it from 18, and you can consume it in a pub/restaurant from 16 but only with a meal and supervised by an adult. In France, you can buy it in bars from 16.

This sounds really strict because of how it's phrase but the legal limit for drinking alcohol in a private space in the UK is 5.

You should try to go to "most of Europe" and try to get alcohol as someone <16 and see how that goes.

The comment I replied to specifically said "ban children from drinking", not purchase alcohol.

For instance here in the UK it's legal for any child over 5 to drink in private.

Yeah, but that pedantry did not add much. Yes, we do not ban children from drinking but there are still limits on their ability to buy and consume. A responsible adult needs to be present when children consume alcohol in many countries.

> A responsible adult needs to be present when children consume alcohol in many countries.

Present? Or just buy it originally.

There are no laws similar to gun safes requiring alcohol safes.

Drinking != Buying.

It is usually legal for parents to give under-18s a sip of an alcoholic beverage. It is not legal for under-18s to buy any such beverage in a shop.

My son had no problem getting a beer with his meal at 15 in Munich. We were there, though, so it was supervised. It was also Radlers, so half beer, half soda.

But they can't legally purchase/access it without the involvement of an adult, unlike social media. You could argue that the parents sanction social media use by giving their kids a phone/computer without any sort of parental controls, but most parents probably have neither the resources nor proper knowledge of how to sufficiently provide a safe platform for their children.

You can't legally buy a mobile contract in the UK if you're under 18. So in most cases the parents did buy it for the child.

You are aware that pay as you go sims are available from literally every store in the United Kindom, and any child can just buy one within minutes if they are so inclined?

Not to mention that using social media does not require a phone number, and wifi is practically ubiquitous.

Prepaid sims still require presenting an ID card everywhere in Europe. (Since brexit, that might be different in UK, but I very much doubt it.)

>> (Since brexit, that might be different in UK, but I very much doubt it.)

It's crazy that in 2026 when we literally have the knowledge of the entire world at our fingertips it's still easier to just say "I doubt it" instead of looking it up.

To save you those 5 seconds of googling - no, you don't need to present any ID to buy a sim card in the UK.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com