While laws vary across Australia, the rules regarding minors in licensed premises are strict.
Both the licensed venue and the supervising adult have responsibilities to ensure the safety and well-being of minors.
The venue must strictly prevent minors from being served alcohol and protect them from any inappropriate behaviour or situations, while the responsible adult must provide constant supervision, ensuring the minor does not participate in any activities that are unsuitable for their age.
In recent times, some venues, fed up with parents allowing children to run amok, have banned children altogether.
A bar and dining venue in Sydney’s Marrickville, known for its family orientation, banned under-18s citing safety concerns, which has been approved by locals – both parents and childfree alike.
Further afield, landlord of The Kenton pub in Hackney has caused rigorous online debate following his recent decision to ban children.
Three incidents stood out to the veteran publican, Egil Johansen, in solidifying his decision.
The most horrifying was when a three-year-old had wandered away from oblivious parents and fell down the cellar hatch, behind the bar.
The second was a five-year-old who ran into a staff member carrying a full tray of drinks, which crashed to the floor.
The final straw was six parents, fresh from a birthday celebration, who ushered in ten hyperactive kids, all buzzing with excitement. Instead of reining them in, the parents mostly tuned out, letting their kids run wild.
Johansen said that whatever the situation, the parents blame the venue or become angry when asked to control their offspring.
While he first implemented an unsuccessful interim measure of banning children after 5pm, he turned to the only remaining choice of banning them altogether, which drew a lot of online criticism.
“I’m a publican; I’m a people-person,” he told the Guardian.
“It gives me no joy to ban anyone, but it’s just not safe: parents don’t control their children and our other customers were beginning to go elsewhere. I had no choice.”
While some pubs don’t have issues with reckless parents, others have made a similar decision based on financial reasons as well as behavioural concerns.
Publican Stephen Boyd said he found families with children often took much more time over the lower-priced children’s orders. While requests to adjust orders were not unreasonable, there were a lot, which affected other paying customers.
Once he banned children, he said the stress disappeared overnight. Takings doubled and he retained more staff.
He too received backlash online, although he said it was mainly from those who had never been to his venue.
In all cases, publicans have said the blame does not lie on the children, but the parents’ lack of supervision or engagement.
Comments on the Kenton’s Facebook page supported the move.
“Surely it wouldn’t cost much to install some sort of secure cage outside into which the children could be crammed?” quipped one.
“Honestly, I never really understood why anyone would think it’s acceptable to welcome children into an environment where having an alcoholic drink is the primary reason for being there,” said another commenter.
“If drinking and driving, drinking and operating heavy machinery, etc are considered at the least irresponsible, why on earth do we consider drinking and parenting an acceptable pass time,” they continued.
While there is no single approach to whether or not a pub allows children, it often only takes one incident to settle the decision.
