Believe it or not, the EU may be tiptoeing towards a ban on energy drinks for kids. It may be true that some European children would be better off drinking fewer energy drinks, but Brussels’ willingness to slap bans on things it doesn’t like, no matter the consequences for business or basic personal liberties, is alarming. The energy drink industry is already strictly regulated, and rightly so. We need a different approach to children’s lifestyles, including education reform, not a blanket ban on the products themselves.
The European Parliament’s Committee of Petitions recently decided to maintain a petition on banning the sale of energy drinks to minors in the EU. It may only be a petition by a private individual – for now – but it is part of a broader worrying trend. A consensus is slowly building among EU politicians on this issue. There is already a trend among member states including Hungary, Croatia, and Denmark for serious debate around the idea of banning energy drink sales to children and adolescents.
Putting a minimum age on the sale of energy drinks will solve nothing, no matter how unhealthy they may be for under-18s, or indeed for adults. There is a marked difference between the sentiment that minors shouldn’t drink energy drinks and the reality that they won’t. In other words, this policy simply won’t work.
Bans and regulations designed to make people healthier are not working. Sin taxes on sugary beverages, alcohol and tobacco restrictions do not make people healthier because consumers often find illicit ways to continue enjoying the products they know full well to be bad for their health.
Teenagers who enjoy energy drinks are already more likely to smoke and drink alcohol, despite it being illegal to sell those products to them. There has even been an increase in the number of adolescents consuming these products. We would be better off enforcing the laws we already have, rather than creating new ones which will be almost impossible to enforce.
Policymakers must make an effort to understand behaviours, not try to mould the world into their desired shape through regulation. The question is not whether energy drinks are healthy, but why kids choose to drink them. Teenagers tend to be more tired than other age groups. There is also mounting pressure on them to perform well in their academic achievements or other endeavours like sports.
In the US, by far the largest market for energy drinks, teenagers spend an hour a day on homework, twice as much as in the 1990s, and around 4.5 hours on education in total. They spend 45 minutes on sports and 9.75 hours asleep. Stats for time spent on schoolwork shows a steady increase.
In a survey conducted in the Marche Region of Italy, 27.7% of students said they consume energy drinks. 97% of those do so for sports, 82% to make the most of their free time, and 72% for pleasure. These are behaviours which Brussels’ policymaking elite will never be able to change through centralisation of lifestyle policy, no matter how unhealthy they may be. However, 60% claim to use energy drinks for studying. Overall, the farthest-reaching reason for energy drink consumption is the need for energy.
There is mounting pressure on kids to perform well in schools. This causes mental health issues, an increasing concern further exacerbated by the apparent mental health problems caused by energy drinks teenagers use to be able to do better in classes. Although kids have to spend a lot of time in classes, when they finally get home, they still face a pile of homework.
This dynamic has been a burdensome part of most kids’ lives for generations, but it is time to question the norm. There are schools which don’t give homework and students there are not lagging behind. There is evidence too much homework has no added benefit. (It should be noted, though, that practice at home and homework are not necessarily the same.)
Adolescents are overburdened and overpressured as it is, but piling homework on them only further escalates growing health concerns. In order to cope with an understandable lack of energy, they turn to energy drinks.
If governments ban sales of these beverages to minors, it won’t solve their underlying problem of being overburdened and over-pressured. Instead of increasing illegal consumption through bans, regulators should consider banning homework, or at least advising teachers against it. Don’t try to reform the behaviour of consumers through coercive measures. Instead, reform education to be more child-centric. That might include restructuring classes, moving the start of school to a later time in the morning, and not assigning homework.
Public education in Europe is struggling. A systematic rethink of education would help kids as well as benefit taxpayers and the future of the labour market. Unfortunately, decision-makers seem to lack energy to take such a big step. So far, the EU has delegated the choice to member states whether to ban energy drinks or not to member states. Hopefully, that will not change – more centralisation in Brussels would be unhelpful here. This should also be the case for educational policy, although there is an opening for a less homework-reliant, more child-centric educational norm to emerge. Decision-makers, not kids, ought to do their homework: bans don’t work, neither does pressuring kids. Ditch homework. Let kids have more energy and live a freer and healthier life.
Máté Hajba is a Hungarian writer and a fellow with Young Voices Europe. Máté runs the Free Market Foundation, a Hungarian libertarian think tank. He was formerly the editor of the Liberal Voices Syndicated project of the 4liberty network.