OT: Most Brits Think Kids Are Danger To Society
- From: jazzerciser@xxxxxxxxxxx (-)
- Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:45:03 GMT
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article5167811.ece
November 17, 2008
Most adults think children ?are feral and a danger to society?
Alexandra Frean, Education Editor
Comment: Martin Narey, Chief Executive of Barnardo's
Public intolerance of young people has reached such levels that more than half
of all adults think that British children are beginning to behave like
animals, a poll has found.
The poll, commissioned by the children?s charity Barnardo?s, found that 49 per
cent of adults regard children as increasingly dangerous both to each other
and to their elders, while 43 per cent feel that ?something has to be done? to
protect society from children and young people.
More than a third of people agree that ?it feels like the streets are infested
with children?.
The YouGov poll of 2,000 adults suggests that the great strides made towards
children?s rights and child welfare through the Government?s Every Child
Matters agenda, in which the interests of the child are supposedly put at the
heart of all policy, have had little impact on public consciousness.
The picture to emerge from the poll is of an adult population exasperated by
what they perceive to be a breakdown in social order among the young. For
children and young people, the upshot is a world in which they are made to
feel unwelcome in public spaces and where adults have become fearful of them
on the streets.
Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo?s and former director-general of the
Prison Service, said the attitudes revealed by the study reflected the results
of the British Crime Survey, which showed that people blame children for ?up
to half of all crime? when in fact they are responsible for 12 per cent of
criminal activity.
More than half of the survey respondents (53 per cent) said that children were
beginning to behave like animals and 45 per cent agreed that people refer to
children as feral ?because they behave this way?.
Mr Narey said it was appalling that words like ?animal?, ?feral? and ?vermin?
were now used daily in reference to children. He said: ?Despite the fact that
most children are not troublesome, there is still a perception that today?s
young people are a more unruly, criminal lot than ever before. The British
public overestimates, by a factor of four, the amount of crime committed by
young people.? In reality, most young people lead trouble-free lives and many
contribute positively to society. Half of 16 to 19-year-olds help informally
in their communities and a third do formal voluntary work, according to the
Barnardo?s report. The charity argues that children who become involved in
criminal activity come from the most deprived families, have the poorest
education and are more likely to suffer from poor health.
It cites the case of Liz, aged 17, who was taken into care after her mother
abandoned her as a baby and her father abused her. Unable to fit in, and
bullied by other children, she became unmanageable and violent.
With the help of Barnardo?s, she is attending a course to learn the practical
life skills that teenagers from more comfortable backgrounds take for granted.
She told researchers that for the first time she has a sense that her life is
heading somewhere positive. Her ambition is to become a chef in the Navy.
Barnardo?s hopes that such stories, together with an accompanying television
campaign and a video that will be aired on YouTube, will help to tackle
negative perceptions of youngsters.
? Pre-nuptial agreements would be legally binding and cohabiting couples would
be refused the same rights as those who wed, under Tory plans for
strengthening marriages and families. The proposals, revealed in an interim
report from the Centre for Social Justice think-tank, run by the former Tory
leader Iain Duncan Smith, also back the use of Australian-style family
relationship centres, which work with separating or divorcing couples.
Related Links
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Alpha Mummy: Are kids these days worse than we were?
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Have your say
Society does not need to be protected from children and young people. Children
and young people need to be protected from society. Its this right-wing "see
and not heard" attitude that causes young people to behave badly and rebel in
the first place.
Kieran, Haywards Heath, West Sussex
I am a teenager, and I've enjoyed reading these comments, it's swell to see
what's thought of us. Some comments just leap from the pages of
totalitarianism. The Hitler Youth didn't question the authority of their
elders perhaps you'd like us to become brainless drones, who obey every word
like them.
Oliver, Chesterfield, England
I lived in south Africa for 24 years before moving to the UK. I have traveled
extensively and the UK is the only place I've where I feel threatened by
teenagers.
Justin, London, UK
When the public says "half" of all crime is committed by young people, and
research says only 12%, I must ask what age cutoff each group is using.
Without that information, the whole comparison is completely meaningless.
I bet researchers use 18 and the public thinks early twenties.
Chuck Harley, San Diego, USA
Pete form York is right on the money. My selfish and unpleasant generation
first abused their parents' ideals, parents who fought a depression and a
world war, and now their children. If the wartime generation was the best this
country produced the generation it spawned has been the worst.
Eddie Reader, birmingham, england
Here in the USA, we repel the obnoxious by playing soft, classical music. No
one has to shoo anyone away, and normal people are completely unaffected.
Oftentimes, the obnoxious don't even realize consciously why a formerly
comfortable hangout spot repulses them so.
P. Iano, Milwaukee, USA
I'm 22 and work in a school. Most of the problems I see come from,
Bad parenting
The government giving away houses and money to anyone with a child (many
people have kids just to get a free house).
No laws to punish bad behaviour. Most kids see prison as a place to sit and
watch tv all day!
Miriam, Cornwall,
"I'd go further. The greatest threat to our society, is the children. If
they're our future, god help us." One of the many shocking statements made
here and i am disgusted at everybody being so generalistic. Why does everyone
assume that if you have kids, you are in a council house on benefits?
Nicola, Lincoln,
Pete,York
Thatcherism? No, it's 11 years of the rights culture under NuLabour (& the
kids charities). Endless rights for kids, stopping discipline from parents and
teachers & yet little or no mention of responsibility
Btw global warming is a reality, head in sand time maybe?
Guy, London, UK
There's no hope. Despite the article showing evidence that adults overestimate
the trouble children cause, most of these comments are anti-children -
shameful. Maybe you live in broken communities like the poxy capital, but lots
of us live in normal rural UK where the kids are fine.
John H Woods, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
Most of the children I see are on the tube or busse getting to school. There
are damaged children but that's not new. I suspect the current adult inmates
population (record high)had not so quiet childhoods. People just take any
opportunity to have negative opinions, based on nothing but headlines
Olivier, London, UK
Unfortunately a large minority of young people spurred on by drugs and alcohol
behave outrageously. To say that those young people behave like animals is an
insult to animals.
JS Sierzant, Nelson, England
Its not the kids , its those that have them that still behave like as kids.I
was in a shop the other day and a kid was pullling down the window display ,
twice , father did nothing but continue to look at video games.
Ban having kids until your 5 years together.Solve two things at once.
C robb, ayr, uk
I am fortunate to have grown up in a culture of dissipline enforced by
corporal punishment. I detest liberal idiots who argue that cp teaches
children that violence fix problems. It teaches children that bad deeds have
conscequences. Take it away, and children become spoiled brats.
hannodb, Pretoria, South Africa
Stop paying children to have children, its better to get knocked up at school
and get a house and bennefits than to study, get a poorly paid job and not
afford a house!
With mass immigration and mass exit of jobs its madnes that we still pay
people to have kids both in allowances and in divorce
ana, harwich, english
I echo Graham of Swansea and Martin of Poole's sentiments. I would stand up
for teenagers, knowing that they have nothing to do at nights, but after the
last 20 years of degenerating parenting skills and kids raising themselves in
a me-and-only-me culture, I have given up on today's young people.
Alfie Hynes, Plymouth, England
I'd beg everyone on here (from the point of view of a twenty-year-old, a young
adult who's usually still grouped by older generations as a child) to consider
that it really is a minority of the young who get the press.
Jen, Cambridge,
I'm sorry to say that I myself, who used to love children, want nothing to do
with them anymore, unless they are polite and well brought up,
Children are now used as 'bargening' power
Graham, Swansea, UK
Unfortumately, the total lack of discipline inclines us older folk to that
view. After all we probably got a thick ear or a slap and have survived
reasonably well. But ne'er do wells and do gooders have much to be blamed for.
Knifings every where and people are surprised at the outcome.
M. Cawdery, Portadown,
With previous generations, parents were taught the skills of parenting by the
Grand Parents; now pregnancy is seen as a fast-track to a home and benefits;
when they then find that parenting is far more difficult than thought, they
give-up...
Martin, Poole, UK
There is no discipline at home or in the schools anymore. Bring back the cane
and allow parents to smack their off spring for their bad behaviour. There is
a huge difference between a smack and abusive behaviour. Society in general
took a nose dive when the constraints were removed.
Chris, s'bury,
Any child under the age of 10 who is not accompanied by an adult over 21
should be rounded up & detained until parent/gaurdian pays a fine to release
them. Maybe this will start to reinforce responsibility on parents/gaurdians!
As for teenagers, well, boot camps until they learn respect!
Pete, St Albans, England
I would like to see the survey itself. It sounds like the terms "feral",
"vermin", and "infested" originated in the questionnaire drawn up by Barnado's
and YouGov. Agreeing to statements which use such words, while disturbing, is
very different from individually volunteering such statements.
Thomas Mansell, London, UK
Again, all the blame is 100% on the previous two governments. Remove respect
and discipline from the home and school and you bring in Golding's 'Lord of
the Flies' scenario. I wonder why that book was compulsory on the education
syllabus at school? Socialism destroys society and creates anarchy .
Marcus, London, England
I would suggest that if you wanted to improve the image of children in society
you should first limit the appalling treatment they receive at the hands of
the media. No other group, I suspect, is as vilified and damned by the media
as adolescent children.
Rohan Davies, Brisbane, Australia
I blame Thatcher. If she hadn't stolen our free milk at school, kicked our
parents out of jobs to prove a political point & antagonised our teachers to
the point where they gave up school clubs\trips etc then maybe we'd have more
parents today who *cared*. No thing as society though,remember!
mark, brussels (expat), belgium
Of course one uses such language about children - but then descriptions such
as "feral" apply just as much to a number of adults too (just see any town
centre on Friday and Saturday nights, when the streets are more or less
abandoned to them).
John Scott, London,
If the world wasn't filled with bad parents the children would know to behave.
I know who to blame and they're the same people who have pulled the strings
for the last 40 years. Credit crunch, thatcherism - no such thing as society,
global warming?
The baby boomers destroyed britain not the kids.
pete, york, uk
Children need less rights and more discipline, it may only be a few 'feral'
children who give the rest a bad name but unless these few are tamed and the
unquestioned authority of adults is once again reinstated within society,
matters will only get worse. Stop abuse but don't undermine discipline.
Les, Southport, England
The shadow of pedophilia has left adults imbued with a sense of shame. Without
their influence, damaged kids are wielding too much control over the other
kids.
Our fault or not, these sociopaths exist; they need to be cut off from the
rest of the pack and have their development issues addressed.
Ed, Cardiff,
I'd go further. The greatest threat to our society, is the children. If
they're our future, god help us.
Laura Roberts, London, UK
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