Dangers of modern British Youth

An alarming new report by Banardos has highlighted the unfounded paranoid fear that adults have of young people in Britain today.

54% of adults questioned said that children "behaved like animals", 43% said that "adults need to be protested from children" and, 33% agreed with the statement that "it feels like the streets are infested". This poll highlights the disgusting demonisation of youth in Britain today.

What I found even more worrying is that terms such as "animals", "feral", "vermin" and "parasites" are commonly used to describe young people in Britain. Such language, Banardos found, are commonly used by members of the British public on new stories relating to youth crime. Even more troubling is the actual comments themselves, with people calling for teenagers to be "shot", and claiming that they should not have human rights.

Ironically, such comments even appeared on comments relating to this story, one man in the Times screamed "Children need less rights and more discipline.....", another wanted to go further, calling for "Any child under the age of 10 who is not accompanied by an adult over 21 should be rounded up & detained until parent/guardian pays a fine to release them..." while "..As for teenagers, well, boot camps until they learn respect!".

The Daily Mail readers where even more indignant, "The difference is that with feral beasts you can give them a good shoeing and they go away...try that with nkids and you get locked up in jail..." complained one woman, another had a much more intelligent analyse of the situation "Rats are more humane than a large minority of 'Children'..." , in fact all over the net ignorant people raged against the "evil" and "dangerous" children of Britain, calling for the return of "Corporal punishment" in schools, and allow parents to beat their children.

It is unfair to say all comments were ignorant, and there was a fair bit of support for children too.

The mean reason behind the demonisation of children in Britain today, I think, is the media portrayal of children, television news and newspapers frequently report on "yob culture", "hoodies" and "feral youths" committing all kind of manners of unspeakable crimes, when they are not binge drinking that is. They even put nice pictures of 'youths' wearing hoodies while smoking and/or drinking on their pages and news bulletins.

Television programmes are not that much better either, frequently showing children in a bad, negative light. Political parties also have a part of the blame, playing to this moral panic, to try and gain some cheap votes and headlines, by playing up to the vilification of the young.

A return to blogging

After disappearing for a while, I've decided to return to blogging, for a third time, and have another completely fresh start. Hopefully this time I will be able to find the time and, more importantly, be able to think of what to say. In any case, this blog will talk about politics, and mordern society, television and anything else I can think of really.

Anyway, hopefully this time I will be able to stick with it, and post interesting things.