Children drinking alcohol?

I’d drink if I had to be around you as well 

In the Philippines they often drink and smoke as kids. 

Most countries have stricter laws though, sometimes excessively so, like Saudi Arabia where alcohol is banned.

About 50% of kids will try and drink alcohol or smoke before they are legally allowed to. That's just life. It is a good parents job to educate their children on what is and is not allowed and the reasons or it. 

Ironically, areas with lax laws on drinking have fewer problems - Italy for example. This is generally an issue in the US.

In the UK there is a lot of confusion over the drinking age. Most people think it's 18.  It's actually FIVE. 18 is the age at which you can BUY alcohol and drink on licenced premises. Even on licenced premises it's legal to drink beer, wine and cider if it's with a meal and has been purchased by someone of 18.

At home or on private premises with the owners permission it's legal to drink anything at 5.

It's socially accepted in many countries (North America is almost communist with drinking age enforcement), but it's not healthy.  

For over a century, medical science has known that alcohol affects children differently than it affects adults.  It can seriously impair growth and development, especially in the brain, even in 'moderate' doses.  That's why drinking age laws were put in place, in fact.

That said, there are a lot of countries where children consuming alcohol is legal and common.  THAT said, very few of those countries are considered world leaders.

People in the UK are very accepting of children drinking alcohol, why that is I don't know.

Clearly it's a cultural thing.  The Philippines are not Canada.  And countries all vary on this - majority Muslim ones where alcohol is illegal are obviously different again.  So what's normal? - it's a function of geography!

The drinking age is 18 in the Philippines too but there are so many places you can buy alcohol that don't ask about age, so it obviously isn't enforced so well.

And remember the age is only about BUYING alcohol - if an adult buys it for a child, that can be completely different.  I'm British and we are one of the few countries that has a legal age limit on drinking it, which is 5.

Just for another culture, it's normal in France that if parents are having wine with dinner, the kids will have some too, watered down.  So they get used to it in a sensible way and learn to appreciate wine without just thinking of it as something to get drunk on.  Not surprising as France is a huge wine producer - alcohol is more part of life, has been for centuries and they've worked out how to teach children about it.

Obviously what your nephews do is not good for their health but it's normal for the Philippines.  It's certainly not normal for Canada.  Which does at least have a more logical attitude to it than the USA, where in so many places it's a thing you have to go to special shops for and that makes it look like an attractive forbidden fruit.

It's a very diverse world we live in, and what's "cultural" is not necessarily good.  I did an MA dissertation on this, basically because I got annoyed by Bhikhu Parekh's book on multiculturalism and can't understand his contradictions.  Just for one, he says all cultures are equally valid.  But he is against female genital mutilation.  But hang on here, the practice of cutting off a girl's labia and sewing up her vagina so there is only a small hole left, which makes sex when she's older extremely painful, IS part of the culture in parts of Africa.  So which is it?  You can't have it both ways - either FGM is right because it's cultural or it's wrong because it's child abuse.  (I must have written something right as it passed and I got the degree!)

No, kids being drunk is certainly not normal everywhere, but it's normal for the Philippines.  And looking around the world, what they do there is not common.

It's more common than you think

At 11 they are easily influenced by peers! I remember when I was in Grade 6, there was health portion of people in my grade that were drinking (I'd wager 30-40% of the classes). They would either a) sneak off during lunch break to go behind the school to drink or b) they would go to house parties.

i dont think they should be drinking alcohol at that age

That is extremely bad for the brain of a child, and in excess is not common at all in civilised countries.