Britain's Teenagers - Worst in Europe?

I wouldn’t be surprised by this because I hear so much about it on the news and read it in the newspapers but both could be exaggerating, especially newspapers. I don’t think that this comment is fair though because I think the researchers probably have not taken everything into account. For example, the researchers probably didn’t include all groups of young people such as disabled young people etc (who in my opinion are often overlooked).

The research was carried out after it was noticed that teens were behaving worse, drinking more, taking drugs more, having sex more and getting involved in more fights, but I think the researchers concentrated too much on this, did they also include for example the successes and achievements? Our really badly behaved youths may be worse then any other country’s in Europe, but it does not mean Britain’s youth are worse as a whole.

If the research was nationwide, what sort of areas were used? There are differences in antisocial behaviour, records of which in large cities such as London are higher then in say small Leicestershire villages. This may be completely different somewhere else, but in my class at school there is only really naughty person who is nowhere near ASBO material, and in the school from what I know of, the majority of people are well behaved.

A lot of this bad behaviour is probably down to reputation because nearly everybody in my school really hates being labelled a “boff” or “nerd” or “geek”. In some cases, pupils have been failing on purpose so that they are not classified as a “boff”, and think it’s cool not to be a geek or a successful pupil.

Another reason for this behaviour is a lot of youths like to get attention. By working hard or being well behaved does not achieve this for some people, so they go attention seeking by being naughty. When they see people looking and laughing at them they carry on, and sometimes their behaviour gets worse because people are drawing attention to them.

Finally, another factor for youths behaving badly is their families. Some parents don’t care if their children stay out late or if they misbehave at school. Plus some parents may actually be physically scared of their child or because when sometimes a child’s parents have split up, they threaten the parent that they mostly live with that they’ll go and live with the other parent.

To improve our nations behaviour I say there should be a curfew that lets under 18’s out until it’s dark because most antisocial behaviour happens when it’s dark. The time that the sun goes down changes throughout the year so in the summer they should be allowed out until 9:00pm, and in the winter they should be allowed out until 6:00pm. This means in the winter the child can sit down and have a proper meal with their parents.

I personally don’t think youth clubs will help because a child will say to their parent/guardian that they’re going to the Youth Club, and never do. For example, if the Youth club starts at 7:00pm and finishes at 9:00pm, then the child could go down the local park with their friends and carry out antisocial behaviour. Then return home at 9:00pm with their parent/guardian not having a clue they’d done anything. Even if the parent/guardian dropped them off in the car then they could wait until they’d gone and then go elsewhere.

 - by Lampard and Icefire

Recent reports and articles say that Britain’s teenagers are the worst in Europe, but is that fair, accurate or right, or none?

I don’t think it’s fair, and I think it basically all comes down to the parent’s interest in their children. I think that when the parents do not care about what goes on in their children’s life, then the children will act badly, maybe to get their parents attention or maybe just because it makes them look good and they can, as there’s nothing stopping them. For example, when a child is young they should be trained to be good by when they are good they get a ‘treat’ that is related to what they like doing, but if parent’s do not take interest in their lives then they will not know what they would like, and those type of parents may, in most cases, then just not bother, so there is no reward when the child is being good so they might as well be bad, and they’ll grow up like that. Just all the little things like that help to develop a well behaved teenager. But parent’s will just get it from their parents, who will have got it from theirs etc. It may also be down to peer pressure, as if someone’s friend puts down that they’ve done illegal things then someone else might also put it down as to look cool.

The only cure I can think of is the government rewarding the teenagers instead of the parent’s so then the children who’s parent’s wouldn’t bother still get the benefit’s and the children whose parent’s do get it from the government instead. But I think the government should ask all the children what they enjoy doing so as they still get the type of thing they enjoy, and not, as many schools do, an educational reward. ASBO’s and other government punishments do not work. I think punishments should be being banned from something they love doing.

I also do not think it’s accurate as the other countries could have given the wrong Stat’s to make their country look good. Also the times report on it gives evidence for the UK’s teenagers being the worst, but the evidence is quite old, so may not be right.

- By xcheerleaderx

Recently there was an article talking about Britain having the worst teens in Europe. But they were only looking at the bad kids, what about the good kids, the ones who stay in school and work hard? If you search “Britain’s Teenagers” on google its just a mass of sites about how bad Britain’s teens are (sexual risk, drinking and so on). So have the good ones been forgotten? Yes. Even if you search “Britain’s good teenagers” it still comes up with loads of sites about how bad Britain’s teenagers are. The Government need to concentrate more on the good teenagers and be rewarding them. They have started paying people now to stay on in school. But more needs to be done.

Maybe an article should be written on how the good kids get better jobs or something similar, explaining that if you work hard you get more. Put down the stats for that.

I read in kerrang! recently in a lostprophets special, guitarist Lee Gaze said that when he bought his first guitar it kept him off the streets because all he wanted to do was practice. If the government and schools could put together music studios, more halls and more things like that, it would be best because if the teenagers became passionate about something, then that could keep them off the streets. This could be done for everybody.

- By Strawberry