The youth of today are beyond help? Much of the adult population believes.

[whippetycros]

Nearly a quarter of adults believe disruptive or anti-social children are beyond help by the time they become teenagers, a survey has suggested. Barnardo's as stated on BBC news Around a fifth of the 1,000 people questioned in the poll for children's charity Barnardo's thought youngsters were beyond help by the age of 10. The young people of today love luxury; they have bad manners; they scoff at authority and lack respect for their elders; they contradict their parents...' Or do you have a different viewpoint?

[jake-the-peg]

The adult population think that the youth today are a bunch of lazy workshy good-for-nothings with bad manners and disrespect their elders.

Are you sure this belongs in News and not history. I'm pretty sure that every generation thinks this it was certainly a common theme in ancient Rome.

Tell you what - find me a case in history where a generation believe that the "youth of today" is so much better than they were.

I think you'll have more luck finding a man who'll say he's a bad driver!

[vehelpfulguy]

I am reading a book by Bill Bryson called Thunderbolt Kid where he talks about growing up in 1950s USA.

As well as discussing growing up in 50s USA he also talks about some of the social things going on at the time (cold war, television, atom bombs, teenagers etc).

The 50s in the USA was when the "teenager" first came to prominence, before then people went from child to adult with nothing in between.

At that time you had Rock and Roll (Elvis, Little Richard etc), the Hells angel's dressed in black with huge motorbikes terrorizing neighbourhoods, kids with their own money, and kids with their own cars where they could "make out" in the back seat.

Adults in the USA were terrified and church leaders and politicians gave emotional speeches about how the teenagers of the day were out of control.

As jake-the-peg says, EVERY generation thinks the kids of today are beyond help.

I have to say though that when I was young (in the 1960s) knocking on someones door and running away was the height of "danger".

Nowadays kids of 14 steal cars, go on a high speed chase through the local town pursued by the police, dump the car and then set fire to it.

So I suppose it is all relative.

[jake-the-peg]

As opposed to 200 years ago when gangs of kids (younger than 14) would cut the purses of rich men in the street and risk being transported to Australia or even hanged for it?

[Gromit]

Where's AOG when you need him...

[raysparx1]

Are they really ? what a crock of *****, most kids are ok, every generation has a moan at the kids, I ran youth football teams for years and the amount of people that would come up to me and say don't have him in the squad, he's a trouble maker, well I never had any problem with any kid, well only 1, I made my mind up and let them all join, kids respect boundaries, I have come across some very rude and ignorant pensioners,pushing past kids in shops because they think they have a right to be served before the kiddies, some of them need good manners.

[Leilapups]

I wonder what reasons Barnado's undertook this survey, whether they have done something similar in the past and wanted to compare if adult attitudes to children was changing or staying the same, too assess if adults have a preception that children are becoming more or less anti social.
Personally I would think there has always been a significant amount of adults who have disapproved of chldren and seen them as hopless to downright evil.

[suffragette]

I agree with raysparx 1. Most children and young people do respect boundaries and would love to have an adult role model in their lives to advise and encourage them. Personally, I think much of the problem lies with people of my own generation (30's and even, 40's) who refuse to mature and wish to spend their entire lives embracing the rebellious spirit of youth. How can young people learn from elders who refuse to embrace responsibility, respect tradition and advance into true adulthood themselves.

[whippetycros]

I am not sure why Barnado's commissioned this research and not sure what was the benefit. Out of curiosity I will try and find out. Whilst not particularly familiar with Banardo's I thought they were pretty cutting edge when it came to research about children.
Nor am I sure why the BBC via its web site or by mentioning it on a Radio 2 newscast gave it such prominence.

jake-the-peg, earlier in fact, my quote which wasn't clear because the emphasises I used didn't show up in my original question, The young people of today love luxury - has always been attributed to Socrates.

[jake-the-peg]

You out do me by a few years then.

I was thinking of Cicero complaining "O tempora, O Mores"

:c)