British adults 'fear youngsters'

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Suprised this hasn't been commented on here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6074252.stm

The report says 65% of Germans, 52% of Spanish and 50% of Italians would be willing to intervene if they saw a group of 14-year-old boys vandalising a bus shelter, compared with just 34% of Britons.

The 200-page report says that last year more than 1.5 million Britons thought about moving away from their local area due to young people hanging around.

About 1.7 million admitted to avoiding going out after dark as a direct result of youths gathering.

Overhyped moral panic or genuine societal fracture?

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:16 (nineteen years ago)

pretty genuine i reckon. teenagers are terrifying.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:18 (nineteen years ago)

i mean they can be!

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:18 (nineteen years ago)

2000000 posts by Tuesday. Not me though. Nossir.

― James Herbert Dip (noodle vague), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:19 (nineteen years ago)

they listen to such frightening rebellious musics, like Sandi Thom

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 23 October 2006 15:20 (nineteen years ago)

I genuinely don't know, but then I live in a 'nice' predominantly middle class rural locale. Not that low level vandalism etc doesn't occur but the picture described in the article doesn't ring true with my experience.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:20 (nineteen years ago)

The other 66% would just shrug, call emergency services on their cell phones and move on.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:22 (nineteen years ago)

Is this due to Yoof being inherently scary (even though I suspect they are) - or due to the cultural British fear of intiating social interaction?

― Going Through The Motions (kate), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:22 (nineteen years ago)

Some members of a gang of 'youths' did stab a man to death in Dalston a few weeks back after he complained about the noise they were making outside his house.

As usual the claim that 'there's not enough for young people to do, we need proper sports clubs, embroidery classes etc.' comes up but I don't think this has anything to do with preventing people getting stabbed on their own doorstep.

― ;_; (blueski), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:26 (nineteen years ago)

Why do Yoofs always throw things at you when you've walked past them?

More interestingly, WHY DO THEY ALWAYS MISS?

― you win again, gravity! (tissp), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:26 (nineteen years ago)

Same reason they wait until you've passed them.

They are the scared.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:29 (nineteen years ago)

'You're not a paedo, you're just a normal man walking past some simple children.' Hi there.

Look, it's Clean Shirt.

'Clean Shirt? Isn't that good?'

How do you get that shirt so clean?

Look, I know it must be difficult being a kid. Not a lot of schemes. But... You know, I'm not the borough. I wish I was but...

Fuck off, Clean Shirt!

I'm just a man. Can't we just...? Hey, no! No! Kicking's not... Don't kick my foot! That's my... Stop it!

― Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:29 (nineteen years ago)

In UK

And in America

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:30 (nineteen years ago)

Hahaha I can't imagine anyone in the world feeling threatened by emo kids.

― you win again, gravity! (tissp), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

Except twee kids?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/sovstella.jpg

― Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:34 (nineteen years ago)

Haha yeah I always think of Peep Show when I walk past a gang of kids.

But I always think of that man in Dalston as well, and that makes me one of the 66% that would never intervene in anything, I fear.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:35 (nineteen years ago)

teenagers are indeed scary.

when one of them shot out the window of my car at school a janitor who saw the kid refused to id him on a police report. teh fear.

― Sam rides the beat like a bicycle (Molly Jones), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:40 (nineteen years ago)

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

On a more serious note, I myself fear youngsters with idiotic, libertarian moral viewpoints who will probably end up running the country. As any fule kno, libertarianism + running the country = DANGER

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:41 (nineteen years ago)

Not that this has anything to do with UK yoof, but I have been on a subway train with other people who did NOTHING when about a dozen early-teenagers started roughing up a little Asian battery-selling woman. They were pretty scary; there was one ringleader who spurred on the others but otherwise it was mob rule...and fourteen year-olds aren't exactly known for impulse control in the first place.

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

If people don't intervene when they see 14 year olds samshing up a bus shelter, isn't it going to be because they're scared of the kind of people who smach up stuff for fun rather than because they're scared of youngsters in general?

― Cressida Breem (neruokruokruokne?), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:50 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah but you just need the right lever: on the same night as the juvie mob, I was ALSO on a train with two young men who were trying to kick out the train windows. One older, maternal sort of woman chided them, and both boys sheepishly muttered apologies and hung their heads quietly in a corner for the rest of their trip. Funny. Just depends on the perception of authority.

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 23 October 2006 15:53 (nineteen years ago)

I am not terribly scared of gangs of marauding youngsters on the whole, but I can totally understand why some people are. I have actively told some of them off for doing stupid stuff, but it would depend entirely on what they are doing and how many of them there are and where I am etc.

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 23 October 2006 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

Given that I am a fat, red-haired, educated-sounding, loud-voiced, glasses-wearing cowardly lady, I have always had a fear of teenagers. Even when I was one, I was afraid of them. Now they terrify me. There is no way I would intervene if they were smashing up property. Hurting a person, that might be a different thing, but I'd have to not be on my own.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 23 October 2006 17:41 (nineteen years ago)

Lady Sovereign!

How does she get keys to hang from a stream of beer from a can?

Incredible!

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 23 October 2006 17:44 (nineteen years ago)

It was weird, Trish: when I questioned their behavior, their first response was a sort of wary, "Are you a teacher?" Like, WOULD IT HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE? I wonder. Eventually they let the Asian lady pass but didn't give her back the items they knocked out of her hands and stole. I was afraid they were going to take all her products and/or cash bag or beat her up.

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 23 October 2006 17:51 (nineteen years ago)

Well, my hat is off to you for at least saying something to them. It is the kind of situation that makes you wish you were some kind of X-woman so you could smash em.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 23 October 2006 17:52 (nineteen years ago)

I did wish that, instead of a totally unthreatening frumpy thing with no authority. But I couldn't have stood myself if I'd done nothing, even tho it wasn't much.

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 23 October 2006 17:55 (nineteen years ago)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6077214.stm

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Monday, 23 October 2006 18:32 (nineteen years ago)

Generally tedious Guardian scary-teens-speak thing made worthwhile by 16-year-old Lauren: "Adults are jealous of teenagers because they have to stay inside all day. I don't really understand why they do what they do."

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:41 (nineteen years ago)

When I was a yoof I somehow avoided the urge to smash up push shelters and gob at passers-by.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:47 (nineteen years ago)

but now you're an adult it's just too hard to resist!

― ;_; (blueski), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:52 (nineteen years ago)

Heh heh

― Dadaismus (Gives You The Big Reassure) (Dada), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:53 (nineteen years ago)

The British Council's "Teen Tribes" from a few years ago:

1. Clubbers
2. Goths
3. Grungers
4. Indie kids
5. Nu-Metallers
6. Pop Princesses
7. Skaters
8. Soulstrels
9. Townies

what are the main tribes of british yoof in 2006?

chavs / hoodie wearing townies
emo kids
NME guitar bands kids
rap kids

any others?

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:59 (nineteen years ago)

Young Conservatives

― Dadaismus (Gives You The Big Reassure) (Dada), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

Young Conservatives = Supermarket Pop/Rock = Coldplay and Keane

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

It's not the youngesters you have to worry about any more. They're doing good, healthy, active things like forming MySpace bands. It's the sodding peace activists you have to worry about randomly attacking you on the night bus. :-(

― Going Through The Motions (kate), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

i've intervened and told many a kid to stop smashing up shit. did it work? did it fuck.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:05 (nineteen years ago)

How does Lady Sovereign get Stella Artois in a tall can? Or is that just what y'all have over there?

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:06 (nineteen years ago)

yes

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

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