Tiscali Community Discussion

Let's be honest everyone the people to blame for teenagers being violent, agressive and bullies on our streets are not just their parents but the goverment and social workers and schools, but mainly the goverment, because they have taken our rights as parents away to dicipline our kids, if i stepped out of line when i was a teen i got a good bloody punishment i got the flipping belt, it did me no harm besides i woudn't of dared do what kids do this day and age, because i knew if i stepped out of line i would be punsihed. plain and simple i don't mean beaten up but i was diciplined properly, if the goody two shoes of the society let parents do their jobs then i belive that teenages would be a little more respectful to others around them, my teenage daughters don't go out after nine and they have been taught to respect their elders and others around them, they aren't allowed to go out in big gangs hanging around the streets getting up to no good, so maybe some parents are to blame.

We should have compassion for the poor beasts - we've all been teenagers after all. The sense of immortality teenagers have leads many to believe they can indulge in super-human feats of alchohol or drug consumption. In cities, the close proximity of people to each other makes the resulting tensions more acute. I agree with previous correspondents that drink laws need to be tightened - as much for all of us - it's not just a teenage issue. But, I question whether we should 'target' teenagers with stop and search or resort to draconian cultural educational - remember China's lost generation who went through compusory re-education? Moreover, stop and search is an erosion of *all* our civil rights, it starts with teenagers and ends where? You think you're law abiding and should not be stopped and search at a police officer's whim - who are you to have that assumption or make that decision? Let's be rational. These are children who have lost their way. Why? Probably because their parents lost their way and have no idea of how to bring them up - these are the latchkey children of latchkey kids grown up. The answer lies with decent state provision in education as well as benefits for working parents, especially mothers (it is mothers who do the bulk of caring after all), and by supporting family units (regardless of sexuality or gender composition) so that children grow up with stability.

We have lost our cultural identity and role models.The young people are bombarded with the worst of American and Jamacian getto culture. Where are our responsible male father figures both black and white?