Four out of ten minors in Arrecife have accessed pages with content for adults at some point. In addition, one in ten does so several times a week. This is stated in the Study and diagnosis of addictions of young people in the municipalities of Arrecife, Tías and Teguise on the island of Lanzarote, from July 2024. Only these three municipalities are included because they have more than 20,000 inhabitants.
Despite the fact that access to these pages has restrictions, "access controls to this type of content are lax or directly non-existent".
Along with access to pages for adults, minors in Arrecife, Tías and Teguise use the internet for different practices such as online shopping or video games. For example, according to this survey, more than half of young people in Arrecife make purchases online at least once a month and eight out of ten spend more than one day a month playing video games.
In addition to this, there are sports bets, where four out of ten young people in Arrecife have already spent money on bets in different modalities. This figure is similar in other municipalities such as Tías, with three out of ten young people who have bet money online or in person. The average age to access bets is between 12 and 14 years old.
Video games, instant lotteries such as scratch cards, sports bets or bingo are the most frequent forms of betting among students. Meanwhile, investing in cryptocurrencies is not so common.
Electronic cigarettes replace traditional tobacco
Although most young people in Arrecife, Tías and Teguise have never consumed tobacco, the consumption of electronic cigarettes or vapes has grown on the island.
In addition to this, in the case of the capital of Lanzarote, two out of ten smoking minors have tried tobacco before the age of 13. While tobacco consumption decreases, the consumption of electronic cigarettes continues to rise, 41% have consumed electronic cigarettes at some time, with 13 years being the most common age to start smoking them. Along these lines, in Tías, 38.42% of young people have already consumed vapes.
In Lanzarote, the percentage of minors who have consumed alcohol at some time already reaches half of the pre-adolescents and adolescents in Arrecife. Of these, nearly four out of ten start drinking alcohol at age 15 or younger.
The research highlights that, despite the fact that the sale of alcohol to minors is prohibited, the minors interviewed in Arrecife recognize that they can get it directly in bars or pubs (10.24%) and, to a lesser extent, in supermarkets (5.79%), homes (5.69%), nightclubs (5.07%) and shops and kiosks (4.77%). This trend is also repeated in the other two municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants.
However, binge drinking is not a common practice among minors, where seven out of ten have never done binge drinking and prefer to drink in private homes and establishments. In the case of Tías, nearly two out of ten minors have consumed alcohol intensively or binge in the last month.
Meanwhile, the youth population of the three municipalities perceives a greater risk from tobacco consumption than from alcohol.
Energy drinks, increasingly frequent
In this sense, the consumption of energy drinks is already part of the habits of the young population. In the last year, six out of ten young people from Lanzarote in Arrecife, Tías and Teguise have consumed energy drinks and around four out of ten, in the last 30 days.
In Arrecife, nearly two out of ten young people consume energy drinks daily, while in Tías one out of ten does. Thus, one out of three young people do so at least once a month and most access them before the age of 14.
Thus, the study states that "the lack of risk perception, the dependence they generate or their consumption associated with the practice of sports, study or the need to spend long hours in front of a screen may contribute to explaining this high consumption". In addition, it warns that "it is advisable to monitor it as a habit that can lead to health problems among the young population".
In this sense, 16.05% of young people in the capital have consumed tranquilizers at some time in their lives; 12.97% in Teguise; and 10.92% in Tías. More than half of the tranquilizers are obtained by medical prescription. Nearly four out of one hundred young people take them daily.
In contrast, cannabis consumption is less normalized among young people. Thus, 15.02% of the young population of the municipality of Arrecife recognize having consumed marijuana at some time in their lives. This figure grows in Teguise, where 18.9% have already consumed marijuana and decreases in Tías, with 13.5%.
Meanwhile, 4.65% of young people in Arrecife recognize having consumed cocaine on some occasion, above the national average, which is 2.2%; 3.51% have also tried ecstasy; 3.41% of amphetamines. Of the minors interviewed, 32 of them consumed it before the age of 12.
In the case of Teguise, 2.17% of minors recognize having tried cocaine, below the national average. Of the five students who acknowledged having consumed this narcotic substance, three did so before the age of 12. In contrast, the consumption of ecstasy in minors falls in Teguise, with 1.63%; while the consumption of amphetamines is higher than the national average, with 2.71%; and two out of 100 have tried hallucinogens at some time.
In Tías, 2.17% of minors have tried cocaine; 1.31% ecstasy; 1.3% amphetamines; and 2.17% hallucinogens.
The research highlights that minors access cocaine, marijuana, hallucinogens, ecstasy or amphetamines at very early ages, half of them before the age of 12.
Consumption habits and academic performance
The research states that "academic performance could be related to other indicators such as consumption habits", although it states that "this type of direct relationship does not always have to occur". Among those surveyed in Arrecife, 37% were students with good grades, compared to 6% who were failing.
It also highlights that during the night, most of the students in the capital of Lanzarote go out between one and three nights a month (three out of ten), followed by those who go out less than one night a month (two out of ten) and those who never go out (two out of ten). The sample highlights that there are young people who go out one or two nights a week (two out of ten) and in less frequent cases who go out one night a week (1%).
Likewise, sedentary lifestyle affects almost a third of the young population of the municipality. While seven out of ten minors play sports between one and seven days a week. Thus, reading habits also
Sample: more than 1,500 interviews
In total, 1,522 young people from the centers of three municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants on the island of Lanzarote have been interviewed. Students from eleven educational centers in Lanzarote have participated in the interviews. In Arrecife, meetings were held with students from IES Salinas (243), IES Altavista (233), IES Las Maretas (209), CEO Argana (121) and CPEIPS Santa María (90).
