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Uk have worst youths in EU
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
if you've seen the news you will know that the UK has just been given the title of the worst youths in the UK
GRHH!
but we have different attitudes on alcohol many european countries give younger children a drink of wine with a meal so you dont get the rebelious explosion of under age drinking
we are youngest people to have sex, but EU countries have a better sex education programme that teachs kids earlier, etc
and this country has no provision for young people! so no wonder, but this isn't young peoples fault but the government!
dont blame teenagers but the lack of education and legislation
GRHH!
but we have different attitudes on alcohol many european countries give younger children a drink of wine with a meal so you dont get the rebelious explosion of under age drinking
we are youngest people to have sex, but EU countries have a better sex education programme that teachs kids earlier, etc
and this country has no provision for young people! so no wonder, but this isn't young peoples fault but the government!
dont blame teenagers but the lack of education and legislation
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Comments
Shock, horror - young Brits have social life.
Kind of ironic when you read about stuff like this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6096706.stm
Good to know young French lads are having a nice meal at home before they go and make war on the police
Well, kids have been drinking n shit for ages underage. And taking drugs.
As you say though - there is little for youngsters to do, and parents these das are mostly less concerned - letting children of any age stay out until whenever.
I often see under 16's outside the local shops (SPAR and a COOP) asking for someone to buy them fags. At like, 9-10pm. 10 yearolds and less.
I was NEVER allowed out then at that age. Seems alot of parents just don't give a shit though.
Going out every night and standing on a street corner doesn't qualify as a social life.
Going out every night instead of concentrating on studying or on work is not desirable.
The figures from other countries also mask the fact that most of Europe is still arable or semi-arable- teenagers in most of Europe would be expected to help on the farm rather than pissing their time away on street corners with a catering-sized pack of Strongbow.
You're kidding, right? the statistics don't seem to agree with you.
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/agrista/2004/table_en/3513.pdf
The highest % of population working on farms in Latvia at 18.7% of the pop. Outside the old Eastern Bloc countries its Greece with 16.3. Others include France is 4.3%, Germany 2.4%, Belgium 1.7%. Admittedly the UK is the smallest with 1.2%. Across the EU its 5.2%.
The figures don't mask anything of the kind you're suggesting.
That's quite a big difference, isn't it?
Most of France is agricultural, a cursory glance at a map tells you that much.
Yes, but a quick glimpse at the stats says most of the people aren't involved in farming, so land use is pretty irrelevant to the discussion. A difference of around 4.3% vs 1.2% employed in agriculture doesn't mask a difference of 45% of English lads out with their friends vs 17% of French.
this has happened but thing is if the government did a decent job of stopping drug trafficing, then these 'temptations' wouldn't be there. or if the giovernment started an effective early drug awareness campaign!
what 'chaos'?
wheres the positive side of young people in the media, oh i forgot good news stories dont sell!
do you study/work every single night of the week? people are allowed to let their hair down,
Oh of course you can only get alcohol in the cities, how could i forget!
on mainland europe there is a more liberal attitude of having wine/alcohol with a meal, so when they get to the age of being able to be served in pubs etc. they don't binge drink because it is a social part of their culture but we don't have this so as soon as a teenager can get alcohol (illegal and frowned upon) the rebellious factor comes in and they can't get enough of it ergo binge drinking
also the most drunks you found stumbling home from an night out and making fights for the craic are usually the 40 year old male, whos got nothing better to do!
Why on earth should something be provided for them?
You can legally drink wine in a restaurant at the age of 14, if you are with your parents...
[from memory that is...]
So you'd rather we let youngsters sit in the park getting drunk every night than provide somewhere for them to go and do stuff that's better for them?
I'd rather that they did a whole lot of other things, TBH but it's the word provide that is important there. What are the other options?
Provide suggests a specific type of relationship. Why should that be the case?
do you go out for a meal every night?
The government does not have a duty to 'provide' entertainment to teenagers so they don't stand around on street corners. Unless you have some pretty exceptional needs you have to be a very pathetic individual to expect the government to do everything for you. How about they get a part time job instead? Or make their own entertainment?
And the tired 'they have nowhere else to go' excuse for anti-social behaviour is insulting. Plenty of teenagers live in boring places without much on and most don't cause trouble. (And even where there is a lot on you'll find the local twats causing trouble at McDonald's or the cinema or whatever). And when the council does do 'something' they get their fingers burnt. Our local council spent thousands a few years ago on a skate ramp; it was vandalised and pretty soon the object of some pathetic 'turf war' between 16 year old rudes.
What do you mean by "everything?" Do you think a bunch of teens can build their own facilities?
Oh yes, the part-time job, the panacea of all anti-social behaviour. I had a part-time job, whenever I was free I still fucked about on the streets.
How exactly? Mucking about the streets, smoking blow with your mates is the only entertainment they have. And again, do you really expect them to build their own community centre?
That just shows how stupid the council are, of all the louts I see on the street I bet none of them are even half interested in skateboarding. How about a supervised centre with arcade games and pool tables?
Teenagers don't have a 'right' to free arcade games and pool tables.
Well it's better than whinging about wanting the government to build facilities.
And who's going to pay for that?
Aye and OAP's don't have the "right" for a free bus to take them to the bingo hall every Wednesday, doesn't mean it's wrong.
Is that all you can come up with? Well I'm sorry if you lived in a comfy middle class area with a silver spoon in your mouth but others haven't so wise up.
Leprachauns :rolleyes:
Do comfy middle class areas have youth centres with free arcade games and pool tables?
No but as you know there is a strong link between crime/anti-social behaviour and poverty.
When I was younger we used to scrape enough together to get pissed and stoned. We didn't have many place to go so we hung around in public, still I think we were far more sociable than the kids sitting in with square eyes on their playstaions.
If you don't want to see kids hanging around in public give them somewhere to go.
Disillusioned, you said these kids should be entertaining themselves, how?
I can tell you the reason I got into scrapes with the law as a kid, and the reason I started using drugs was because I was extremely bored. Living in a village as I do, there really wasn't anything except a youth club once a week put on by the local church. This had kids from 8-16 and involved lots of prayer - thrilling!
No it isn't
Do you have to drink alcohol every night?
Why can't they?
Or alternatively why can't they raise the money to do what they want instead of expecting everything to be laid on a plate?
It's a thought. Instead of moaning that nothing is provided for you, how about putting some effort into getting what you want? What is wrong with that concept?
So, when something is provided, it isn't good enough...?
Maybe it's just me but I don't know many teens who have the skills and access to resource to carry out such a task.
Raise the money? Do you know how much it costs to build youth centres?
Nothing but surely you can remember the days of being a teenager. Personal resbonsibility is the last thing on your agenda.
It's not good enough when you don't think of the people you're supposed to be targeting. How many yobs do you see going about in skateboards? And alternatively, how many skateboarders do you see vandalising the community for lack of park?
I don't know many (and I include myself at that age) who can be bothered to learn. That's more the issue I think.
Yep. It takes some effort, ingenuity and patience. Are you suggesting that teens aren't capable?
Which is kind of my point...
Yes, the people who can't be arsed to do it themselves, don't really know what they want but will complain about anything you do build for them...
Not much different from the rest of society really...
Enough that they asked for a park, then didn't use it. Locally that is.
It's the thrill of using ordinary objects and getting chased away I guess. Can't replicate that in a park very easily.
I don't think anyone's asking for that. (I'm certainly not)
I have no idea. Not being one of afformentioned antisocial youths, I wouldn't. Perhaps we should ask them what they want to do, what they want in the area. Some of them can't afford things like cinema or shit all the time - so its difficult.
Me and my mates when skint and bored, we just sit around, chat shit with each other, pass the time of day. We don't go be violent and destructive. And it seems when provided with things like a Skate Park, etc, they just vandalise and fuck it up.
So, what do we do? How do we stop them being destructive?