Prof. RNDr. Vanda Boštíková, Ph.D.
Alcoholism is a serious social and health problem that arises as a result of long-term and excessive alcohol consumption. Alcohol addiction negatively affects not only a person’s physical health (e.g., damage to the liver, heart, or nervous system) but also their mental health and interpersonal relationships.
The Czech Republic has long been among the countries with the highest alcohol consumption in Europe. According to national monitoring, 7–10% of adults in the Czech Republic consume alcohol daily or almost daily, and 12–13% engage in binge drinking at least once a week (1).
The age limits for alcohol consumption vary from country to country. In the Czech Republic, the sale and serving of alcoholic beverages is prohibited to persons under the age of 18. In some countries, this limit is different – for example, in the United States, the minimum age for purchasing alcohol is 21. These differences reflect the cultural attitudes of individual countries towards alcohol and their efforts to protect the health of young people.
On August 20, 2022, a video appeared on the social network TikTok claiming that Disney World would lower the age limit for alcohol consumption to 18. According to the video, Disney World was supposed to be in a legal battle with the Florida government to get an exemption that would allow people over 18 to drink alcohol on the resort grounds. The video got millions of views in a few days and soon spread to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
However, Snopes.com, a website specializing in fact-checking, labeled this information as fake satire. Similarly, ABC News refuted this report as fiction in its Fact or Fiction section. The original video came from TikTok user @mousetrapnews, who runs a website focused on parody news about Disneyland parks. The article on which the video was based did not provide any evidence or sources (2).
The reality is that the Walt Disney Company has never requested an exemption to lower the drinking age to 18 at its Disney World resort in Florida (3).
References
- drogy-info.cz+1
- https://mousetrapnews.com/about/
- Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida – Official Site
*This text has received support from the National Recovery Plan under project 1.4 CEDMO 1 – Z220312000000, Support for increasing the impact, innovation, and sustainability of CEDMO in the Czech Republic, which is financed by the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility.
