I live in Yorkshire and travel weekly for work, a lot in London. I’ve not noticed any ‘wild yoof’.
They tend to ignore me because I’m 39, and therefore ancient, practically Victor Meldrew (not that the uncouth urchins would know who he is). My decrepitude renders me invisible as they focus on their teenage dramas.
But…are they as bad as many posters on here are making out? Bear with me, as this will be quite the ride.
When I remember what it was like when I was a teenager in the heady Nineties: sneaking out to go drinking cider with the lads in the park, smoking, sleeping around (in the latter years), FHM ladette culture, the occasional spot of cow tipping…kids today, well, they’re just a bit lame, aren’t’ they?
Let’s compare 1998, when I was a wayward fifteen-year old, to now (or as early as we can).
🚬 Smoking is down - 13% of 11-15 year olds were regular smokers in 1998, compared to 1% now
🍻 Drinking is down - 20% of 11-15 year olds had at least one drink a week in 1998 compared to 6% now
💊 Drug use is down - 29% of 11-15 year olds had ever tried drugs in 2001 (earliest figures) compared to 18% now.
Source: NHS Digital Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People, England 2021 (latest figures).
Ok, so, they’re not using chemicals to look cool or numb their pain anymore. Cool. Cool.
How about sex? 👩❤️💋👩
🤰Teenage pregnancies down: from 47.1 conceptions per 1,000 women in under-18s in 1998, to 13.1 per 1,000 women now.
Source: ONS, Conceptions in England and Wales, 2020
🤒Chlamydia is down: from 145,000 detected in 15-24 year olds in 2012 (earliest figures) to 88,000 in 2021
Other STIs are also down: from 451,000 in 2012 to 312,000 in 2021.
Source: OHID Sexual and Reproductive Health Profiles
So…if they’re having sex (which, current figures suggest they’re still the most active age group sexually), they’re being smarter about it than we were too. Must be the lack of drink and drugs 🙃
Ok, ok, but a lot of people on this thread are complaining about their increasingly violent tendencies. So, antisocial behaviour must have gone up, right?
🥷 Antisocial behaviour…down: from 3.87 million incidents recorded by the police in 2007-08 (earliest figures) to 1.07 million in 2021-22.
There’s no age breakdown for ASB, unfortunately, but it’d be a stretch to say that there hasn’t been a fall for under 20’s when it’s dropped by over 72% overall in 14 years.
“But!” I hear you say, “that’s because the police don’t bother recording it anymore, not because there’s less.”
So…let’s move to the perceptions of antisocial behaviour that is measured in the long running Crime Survey for England and Wales, shall we?
👯 For the hugely relevant, ‘teenagers hanging around on the streets’ indicator - no surprises here but it has also dropped from 23% of respondents in 1996 saying it’s a problem to 13% in 2022.
Source for both: ONS Crime in England and Wales, 2022
So…evidence clearly shows that teenagers are drinking less, smoking less, taking less drugs, getting pregnant and catching sexually transmitted infections less, engaging in less antisocial behaviour and are seen as less of an issue by the general population than our generation ever was.
Let me say that again.
Teenagers today are nowhere near as bad as we were.
The proof is literally in the statistics.
But let’s have a look at some other statistics, shall we?
😔 Admissions to NHS children and young people’s mental health service UP: from to 290,000 referrals in 2016-17 to 1.09 million referrals in 2021-22
Source: NHS Digital Waiting time into children and young people’s mental health services 2016-17 and 2021-22
🧁🤮 Eating disorders UP: from 2,971 hospital admissions for under-18’s in 2015-16 to 7,767 admissions in 2021-22.
Source: NHS Digital Hospital Admissions for eating disorders by patient age
🔪 Self harm UP: from 1,305 hospital admissions for under-18s in 2007-08 to 4,214 admissions in 2021-22
Source: NHS Digital Hospital admissions relating to self harm
That’s…bleak. Right?
So, maybe next time the posters on here want to go on a rant about the terrible state of today’s youth, they might think about actually looking at the facts.
Kids today are overwhelmingly making better choices than we did but are paying a heavy price.
Mental health outcomes are hugely poorer today: they are self-harming and developing eating disorders in increasing numbers.
There’s additional pressures of social media to handle that we never had.
County lines drug operations are preying on young people who are increasingly vulnerable. Knife crime is increasing in turn.
They’re also learning to talk about their struggles more - where we self-evidently handled our shit with (fun) but destructive behaviours, they are asking for help (sensible gits - go on a bender and smash something, fer Chrissakes).
So, we need to be supporting them more. Not letting our increasing vulnerability and insecurities scapegoat them.
They Are Not The Problem.
That is evidently clear.
It’s quite normal to demonise younger people though - we never thought we were that bad at their age because we had those rose-tinted glasses - you don’t realise what a twat you are when you’re young and by the time you’re old enough to know better, you’ve forgotten.
But a look at the evidence shows that the vast majority aren’t doing so bad on the behaviour front. When you see bad behaviour, it’s the exception, not the norm.
However, in case you think that we’re the first generation to unfairly tar all young people as dissident wastrels with no manners or standards, I’ll leave you with this quote:
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
Socrates said that. Nearly 2,500 years ago 🤣.
Essay, over!
Your local, friendly stats lover.