Hello fellow Moderators, Charles Winthrop here, Moderator of /r/alcohol. I've worked the stick, written articles, done reviews, and hosted a talk show about alcohol over the last 20 years. I won't call myself an expert, but I know my field.

Aside from that, I enjoy cooking, a bit of light coding (mostly utility shell scripting), and the occasional woodworking project.

I've been in charge of /r/alcohol for nearly a year now. When I accepted the role, the subreddit had less than 10,000 subscribers, and the majority of posts were either blatant spam (fake alcohol/drug treatment center posts were rampant) or trollish posts from people bragging about their drunken exploits.

Since then, we have 22,131 subscribers (as of this writing), no spam, and several active in-depth discussions weekly about alcohol from the enthusiast's viewpoint.

Oh, certainly, we still get the occasional troll or drunken wag, but they're quickly and quietly dealt with (more often than not by the actual subscribers).

But one thing disturbs me more than anything else. The underage drinkers.

I'm not one who tries to hide alcohol from children. I actually wrote a small paper about it a while back, detailing my personal history of growing up around alcohol, how it shaped my beliefs and views, and my experience in raising others the same way. Giving alcohol the proper respect it deserves.

But lately, it seems the subreddit's rule against underage posting (more for appearance's sake than any actual legal wrangling) has been used more and more frequently.

Just yesterday, we had a post by someone claiming to be a fourteen year old girl, asking exactly how much alcohol would be required for them to be drunk without being "too drunk."

Let that sink in for a moment. A FOURTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL (supposedly) wanting to get drunk.

To me, that is horrifying. And even if the post wasn't really made by a child, the other implications are just as terrifying. What if the post was made by an adult looking to make a child "just drunk enough"?

Of course the post was removed immediately (the account is new, and didn't meet the subreddit's karma threshold). And the OP has since deleted the post, but I have a screenshot of the post.

Should this be reported to the Admins? Some other proper authority? Or am I just tilting at windmills like a modern-day Don Quixote?