Teen drinking measures unveiled

Children's secretary Ed Balls has announced that parents are to be given guidelines on how much alcohol their offspring can safely consume.

Balls said that in addition the government's youth alcohol action plan will crack down on off-licences which sell alcohol to under 18s and aim to reduce drinking in public.

The police will also get new powers to disperse gangs of young people drinking in public.

Bars and off-licences are being told to ask anyone looking under-21 to prove they are over 18 before alcohol is sold.

Balls told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he wanted to encourage a different perception of alcohol.

He said: "I think for young people, growing up, if all you see on TV is over-18s drinking in the town centre, having a great time, drinking loads of alcohol and you think that's what growing up means, it's not surprising you end up with young people binge-drinking under age.

"But that's wrong, it's really bad for their health, it's bad for our society and we need to support parents to have a different attitude to alcohol amongst young people in our country."

However shadow children's secretary Michael Gove said new laws were not the answer.

He said: "We will wait to see the detail because one of the things we have seen from the government over the last 10 years is to come up with legislation, often well intentioned, but it hasn't tackled the underlying problem," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg told the BBC: "Trying to get parents involved is a good thing but once again the government is trying to create great fanfare for a new offence when criminalising people is not always the best way to deal with it."