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Flashez: Teenage drinking in the 1970s

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Flashez: Teenage drinking in the 1970s

SUBJECTS:  Health and Physical EducationHistory

YEARS:  9–10


Do you think that Australian teenagers drink too much alcohol?

If so, do you think this is a new problem? Discover what teenagers thought about such drinking back in the 1970s.

This ABC program from 1977 looks at the issue of teenage drinking, some possible reasons for it and some of the social problems arising from it.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Why do Australians have a reputation for drinking alcohol? Heavy drinking has been a characteristic of Australian society since early colonial times. However, in the period after World War II many people expressed particular concern about illegal teenage drinking by young people under 18 — the legal drinking age in Australia. By the 1970s, teenage drinking was viewed as a serious social problem.
  2. 2.The first two teenagers interviewed in this program suggest some reasons for teenage drinking. What are they, and what do they think will be the consequences of such drinking? What different views on the issue do other teenagers in the clip express? What other evidence would you need to form a hypothesis about the extent to which teenage drinking was a serious problem at that time?
  3. 3.Alcohol abuse has been blamed for illness and accidents as well as for violence and other forms of antisocial behaviour. So why is it widespread in Australia? Some commentators have suggested that drinking alcohol has for so long been considered a feature of Australian culture that governments lack the will to tackle the problem in the way they have done with smoking. Discuss this view.
  4. 4.Do some research using the internet and media reports to find out about 'binge' drinking, especially among teenagers. Describe both the extent to which this is now seen as a major problem in Australian society and the measures that police and health authorities have recommended to reduce the problem. Discuss the responses of governments and give your view as to whether they have they done enough.



Date of broadcast: 1977


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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