Are alcohol-free drinks suitable, healthy or possibly harmful for teenagers?

In recent years, alcohol-free alternatives have flooded the drinks market, reaching into the millions of dollars and heralding a new - but ever more confusing - era for parents across the country.

With such a meteoric rise in choice and popularity, the rules, regulations and wider implications of these drinks for adolescents are still being studied.

Non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits, sometimes known as zero-alcohol or alcohol-free drinks, are drinks that have alcohol levels below 0.5 per cent by volume but look and taste like their alcoholic counterparts.

Whilst alcohol-free alternatives are popular with adults choosing to cut back on their alcohol consumption or quit altogether, there is a grey area when it comes to teenagers, said Nathan Harrison from the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA), College of Medicine and Public Health.