It seems that there is a growing gap between reality and the comfort of perception.
Supposed good, caring parents are allowing their teenage kids to get drunk and get into all kinds of experimental sexual behaviour.
Age
Being in the restaurant business I often come into contact with teenagers and the things they say in a very matter of fact way would curl your hair.
Girls telling me that at 14 they often sneaked back into the house drunk after drinking sessions at the park. Now I'm not talking about the typical troubled kids that are constantly in and out of court no I am talking about nice girls and boys studying for A levels. when they are sober enough!
The Web Young women I work with told me about her 15-year-old sister who was in trouble with her dad for posting semi naked and suggestive pics of herself on the Web.
A handful of social sites like myspace, facebook, bebo and others need to be a lot tougher on the issue of policing the age and the content they allow young teenagers to post. Basically the Internet is akin to the Wild West where anything goes, and they drag their collective feet and whine about censoring our freedoms when they are challenged. If a teenager. your teenager sees this behaviour by their new "so-called web buddies".. there's lots of temptation to copy.
In trying to promote my blogs I recently joined several of these social networks and I couldn't believe the stuff I saw!! Young teenagers offering cam-to-cam sex to other teenagers of either sex!
The Media Often reports things like paedophiles trying to groom teenagers but never to my knowledge tackles this bigger issue of so much unsupervised Internet activity.
Computer Games Any creative game writer must know that his or her games are played by a much wider audience then the so-called viewer ratings (which are mostly ignored by parents). Writers of such violent games like Grand Thief Auto which is basically a training video for wannabe criminals. those writers should be forced to do community work in deprived and dangerous inner city areas to understand the social cost of they hate filled (especially of authority) game generates.
You only have to talk to teenagers to realize their opinions on sex and violence has moved way outside the line of what was considered normal 10 or 15 years ago.
The Culprits Parents make lots of excuses for their children,
To the teachers at their schools
To concerned grandparents who don't understand where they went wrong
To ex-partners who don't approve of their kids behaviour since the divorce
They used to use Television as a cheap babysitter (out of sight etc) but now the Internet with its total lack of decency or use of common sense.
Plan of Action Their needs to be a big clamp down on any shop that sell alcohol to underage people. And if during a stop and search police find kids drunk the parents should be fined.
If these social networks cannot police the behaviour of teenage users then they should ban all teenagers from using them before the age of 18. Government should also bring pressure to bear on these Internet companies that are having a profound effect on our teenagers. Fine them heavily because that is the only rule they go by.
Again if we as a society cannot keep 12-17 years away from the hate mongering and violence glorified in games like Grand Thief Auto then they need to be banned.
Finally to parents (that supposedly love their kids) this is what you do to regain control over your children.
Remove all TV's and computers from bedrooms, allowing kids to watch and use them only up until bedtime. No mobile phones to be taken to bedrooms after bedtime.
Harsh yes. tough love definitely!!
It might cause strange reactions like more talking between the family members, more sharing and interaction, they might even go to bed before 3am and be fresh and alert at school.
I know at first the reaction from kids will be hateful, but part of being a parent is keeping your child safe from harm especially when that harm is already in their bedrooms.
Kevin Anthony Ashton is an internationally experienced Chef of 30 years who now wants to shares his recipes, culinary advice, opinions on food issues and humorous tales with you.
He writes a weekly column for Birmingham's Sunday Mercury (estimated readership 500,000) and is also a member of The Guild Of Food Writers & the British Culinary Federation. Kevin's food blog www.wannabetvchef.blog.co.uk
continues to grow in popularity. His food articles have appeared in newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic including Chicago Sun Times, Hotline Magazine, YesChef, Chef's Magazine, and Reuters.
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
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