Question: My son was charged with minor consumption. He is 16 years old, and they told us it would be on his driving record. Isn’t this a violation of data privacy if he is 16?

Answer: There are two separate violations regarding minors consuming alcohol:

1. Minor consumption while driving (not a drop/zero tolerance) is within traffic code and is the act of consuming alcohol under 21 and being the driver of a vehicle. I believe this is what your son was charged with, and it will go on his driving record. If your son was driving, consuming and he became impaired, he would be charged with driving while impaired (DWI) not minor consumption while driving. We are all adults in the eyes of traffic law. Juveniles do not get softer or different laws, and all ages have traffic violations noted on their driving records.

2. Minor consumption is consuming alcohol under 21. If your son or daughter gets charged with either consumption law, it is a very big deal and can foreshadow what is coming if not dealt with seriously and properly. Please do not laugh it off thinking we all drank when we were teens. First, we all didn’t, and if you did, two wrongs don’t make a right! Casual parental behavior in response to young people drinking or using drugs will send our youth down the wrong path, some kids survive it — some don’t. And there is no formula to say definitively which will.

It is important to mention that a teen’s chances of being involved in a violent crime, offender or victim, increases dramatically when in an environment with alcohol, even more than it does for adults. This violence includes rape and assault. The odds also increase for youth not consuming but in the environment of consumption and impairment with other youth.

We did not pick 21 years arbitrarily to be the legal drinking age. If our youth wait until they are 21 years there is a very small chance they will have problems with alcohol in their lives. The earlier a youth is introduce to alcohol, the greater the chance of problems occurring.

If you have any questions for future columns concerning motor vehicle traffic in Minnesota, please send your questions to: “Ask a Trooper” jacalyn.sticha@state.mn.us with “Ask A Trooper” in the subject line. Questions are edited.

Jacalyn Sticha is a sergeant with the Minnesota State Patrol’s Mankato district.