Are we "Demomonising" children?

[Loosehead]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7443104.stm
or did they "demonise" themselves?
Are young people any different from previous generations or is it the way they are portrayed in the "Meeja"?

[betterman]

I have lived in the same village for 32 yrs, and have never seen so many gangs of children just hanging about on the streets as they are today, and they show no respect at all for any decent longstanding member of the community, they have no respect for anyones property and belongings, most of them are excluded from the 2 primary schools in my village, so will not go on to the comprehensive school, and the parents of these children are no role models for them as the spend all day in bed or down the pub, so their children are just running wild on the streets literally.
Its frightening just to walk your dog and young children for fear of being approached by these delinquents.

[betterman]

Oh, sorry that didn't answer your question really did it, but yes children are demonising themselves, and they enjoy the attention it gives them in "meeja".

[keyplus90]

Perfectly explained Betterman,

[vehelpfulguy]

Let me give you an example why I think the problem is with "us" - society as a whole (not having a go at any one individual just but all of us).

I went to the USA a few years ago and went to an american football match.

The person who took my ticket was a young guy, maybe 16 or 17.

Inside the ground there were loads of shops (outlets) selling beer, burgers, soft drinks, flags, mexican food etc (there were probably about 30 of these shops inside the ground).

I almost every case the people doing the serving were young people (16,17,18).

Funnily enough the crowd was made up of mostly middle aged and older people, very few youngsters.

This differs from a UK football ground where all the people doing the serving seem to be in their 60s and 70s, and the crowd is made up of loads of youngsters.

So in the USA these kids were beng encouraged to get themselves a job, and more importantly the owners of the stadium were willing to GIVE them a job and trust them to do it properly.

Most youngsters in the USA (not all of course) seem much more adult than our kids, and I think this is because in the US people TREAT them as adults, so they take on responsibility quickly.

Many kids in this country are just left to get on with it (mostly by bad parents) so they have nothing to do, no responsibility, no feeling of self worth.

So they just hang around on street corners and soon get bored so start causing trouble.

If WE adults gave them something to do, something to be proud of, the problem would diminish.

[vehelpfulguy]

And to follow on from my answer above.

My son has been in the cubs and scouts since he was about 5. He has gone through beavers, cubs, scouts and now he is 18 he is in explorers.

Some people think scouts is for sissies, but the people who run it are very relaxed (it is perhaps more like a youth club).

In his time there he has done an amazing variety of things - rock climbing, caving, bowling, laser quest, deep water swimming, camping, cooking, fishing and so on.

He has been camping all over the UK and done a load of outside activities.

Last year was the World Scout Jamboree in the UK and about 70,000 scouts from all over the world came to the UK.

My son and his group worked for a year to raise money so that they could all go to this camp, and in the end over 25 of them went, a life changing experience.

My son, and the others in his group, have been kept occupied and therefore out of trouble, by the work of the scout leaders.

ALL the scout leaders give their time for free and it is a pity the governement seem more willing to spend �5000 a week to keep a kid in borstal when if they gave sums of money to the scouts and other organizations it may well help to solve the problem.

I think as a society we have abandoned many kids between about 12 and 18, and they are just left to go on with it.

[Supernick]

The differences with this generation of teenagers, is that they are the first group to really feel the pressure of being marketed to 24 hours a day. They're not popular enough, don't have the right clothes, don't eat and drink the right things, they're promised the world on a stick by advertising and are told that they're adults from a very early age. I for one am not surprised that so many of them emerge bitter and frustrated, insecure in themselves and convinced that they're adult from their early teens.
But when some of them do, we tar them all with the same brush e.g. Kids being noisy on a bus are treated as a 'threat', and not just excitable kids out with their mates. You get the society that you deserve, and we decided that it was more important to cash in on our children by marketing to them, than it was to raise them.

[youngmafbog]

I personally think it it the lefty liberal PC brigade that are to blame for most of this.
Parks are scrapped 'elf 'n saftey guvnor
Police are stripped of 'clipping round the ear'
Teachers, well I'm surprised anyone wants to do this job anymore.
Soft liberal judges hand out pathetic sentences undeming further Police,teachers and society.
Parents who simply dont give a t*ss.
Seems to have particularly escalating over the last 10 years. Now what has happened in the last ten years ??

[stonekicker]

we only demonise the little demons - at the end of the day, anyone who nicks a car, stabs someone or robs a shop knows its against the law and if they get caught they are (and should be) punished. we all make decisions about what we do and the trouble is there is a whole generation of young people out there who have been taught to make bad decisions (by their parents, media, society etc.), fulfilling their purpose admirably. i know where my child is at all times, who he's with and what he's up to - i haven't had twelve kids by fifteen different men and maybe can't be arsed to keep up with all of them cause i is lazy... (by rational choice, i might add!) and been supported in rampant breeding by the state benefit system (i truly believe it should be capped somewhere). parents and the little demons have to take responsibility somewhere for the sh!t they get themselves into. i am constantly amazed by the pond life (both young and old) i encounter when i go about my daily travels - their dimmness, immorality, selfishness and however else you'd wish to describe it. stop all their benefits when they get into trouble with the law/on drugs/have more than two/three kids and see how far they get if you lock them up quicker instead of slower (which is the new trend, these days)

[jno]

agree with VHG and Supernick. Nothing to do with lefties, though - it was Thatcher who had schools sell off playing fields, for instance. Result: no sports to keep kids busy. Nothing much in the way of youth centres or other activities available; such things don't run a profit, and these days if you don't make a profit you close down.

And it's certainly adults who have demonised them. Forty years ago adults weren't afraid of kids; now they are. And who do you suppose it was who forgot to teach them respect for others? Or the value of family life (because you now have two fulltime working parents)? That'd be the older generation, too wrapped up in work, telly and football' a whole generation of rubbish parenting. No wonder it suits them to blame the kids.

[R1Geezer]

well cover me in eggs and flour and bake me for 40 minutes, I just bl00dy knew you lefty t1ts would blame Maggie. You never have forgiven her for stopping your commie mates selling out to the USSR!