This law holds people accountable for knowingly providing an environment where underage drinking is occurring, such as on property they own, rent, or lease. These people are called social hosts – people who host a party or who own or control the property where underage drinking parties occur.
Whereas certain laws prohibit the act of providing alcoholic beverages to underage persons, social host laws target the location where underage drinking takes place. Social host laws often include language such as, “no person who owns, rents, leases, or controls private property shall knowingly allow an underage person to possess or consume any alcoholic beverage anywhere on the private property under their control.”
Since it is difficult to prove someone knowingly allowed underage drinking to occur, social host ordinances are often written to target adults who fail to use reasonable precaution to keep alcohol out of the hands of minors.