In this survey done in Bandung, 48% of all students who confirmed that they drink alcohol reported that they started drinking when they were in senior high school (15 – 17 years old). Alarmingly, 12% started drinking while they were primary school age (6 – 12 years old), and 20% began while in junior high school (13 – 15 years old) (Respatiadi & Tandra, 2018).

According to Prasetyo et al. (2022), 11-14 year olds are more likely to consume alcohol than teens older than 15 with a percentage 67.7% and 23.3%, respectively. There are 51.1% girls and 48.9% boys, more girls than boys. Most of the youth at the middle school level was 76.8%. The prevalence of alcohol consumption among teenagers in Indonesia in 2015 was 4.4%

In 2021, fewer than 2 in 100 adolescents ages 12 to 13 reported drinking alcohol in the past month, and fewer than 1 in 100 engaged in binge drinking. Among respondents ages 16 to 17, fewer than 1 in 5 reported drinking, and fewer than 1 in 10 reported binge drinking (Underage Drinking | National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), n.d.).

Teens normally drink alcohol because they want to experiment with alcohol and are curious about it. Sometimes, teens may be trying to fit in and be part of a social group. They may also be trying to escape from the pressures of being a teen and mask emotional problems with alcohol. Finally, they may be drinking alcohol simply to defy authority (Teens, 2022).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drinking too much alcohol can lead to many negative side effects other than just satisfying your taste, and they have both short term and long term effects. It can make you uncoordinated, cause headaches, and dehydrate you. Drinking too much alcohol for too long can lead to long term health risks. It can damage your organs and increase the chance of getting sick, such as cancer and heart disease. Weakening of the immune system, increasing the chances of getting sick, and learning and memory problems, including dementia and poor school performance are also some of the effects associated with excessive alcohol consumption (CDC, n.d.).

Aside from negative consequences, alcohol also has positive effects. Drinking alcohol can reduce your risk of developing and dying of heart disease, possibly reduce risk of ischemic stroke (when the arteries to your brain become narrowed or blocked, causing severely reduced blood flow) and possibly reduce risks of diabetes (Alcohol Use: Weighing Risks and Benefits, 2021).

Schools could perhaps re-educate their pupils on the terms of alcohol consumption and its harmful consequences and help young people who might be tempted to try alcohol by creating an effective support system and a pleasant school atmosphere. Outside of school, teenagers might rely on parents to help them understand alcohol, to encourage them, and to limit their own alcohol use by avoiding drinking alcohol or getting drunk in front of their children. Last but not least, the government can tighten regulations that prohibit underage drinking, work with the police to patrol areas where alcohol is sold to minors, and support research into the causes of underage drinking as well as ways to further prevent the problem and eliminate factors that encourage it.

The best strategy to stop underage drinking, according to the authors, is for adults and institutions of higher learning to educate their students more about alcohol use. It would be simpler since parents and schools are most likely to have an impact on a child's or teen's behavior while they are young.

In conclusion, alcohol can be addictive and risky, and we are aware that some young kids have been caught drinking illegally despite being aware of the consequences. Alcohol is addictive because it promotes the production of dopamine and endorphins in the brain. Alcohol is a beverage that, from a biblical perspective, is neither prohibited nor recommended for excessive consumption because God disapproves of drunk individuals.

This study is crucial for our future since underage drinking has the potential to decrease lifespan, kill the next generation, wipe out the human race, and turn the planet into a sinful place. In Isaiah 5:22, God asserts that being intoxicated or causing others to get drunk is not a pleasant thing. The research is crucial because it will motivate others to further our understanding of underage drinking and save children from sin.

Future studies could concentrate on conducting both broader and more specific questionnaires to obtain more results and arrive at a more reliable solution, as our questionnaires are typically sent to people we know, which will give us a smaller point of view, in order to better understand the implications of the results.