To think 16 year olds don't go out to clubs and parties anymore?

[Todayisaday]

I was in secondary for the 90s, and at around 16, we were all clubbing and going to raves, pubs, gigs and generally having a whale of a time. I know my parents generation were out a lot too by 16.

I know quite a few 16 year olds children of friends and relatives and they don't seem to go out very much at all like that.
Am I unreasonable to think that this generation are not party people??

Asking as so much culture and new music was created in generations past and fuelled by younger generations pushing boundaries. But either I am old and zi just dont know about these things, or youth culture is genuinly stiffled. They seem to all listen to 90s music atm 😂or mainstream music?
What do you think about it? What do you know that I don't as I am too old 😂

I am 47, turned 16 in 1993 - was out clubbing every weekend - used fake id had the time of our lives. Best years were aged about 16 to 19 before I went to uni - rave music, techno, warehouse parties, drugs, booze - I did live in london so it was easier.

Ugh I’ve noticed this, places where it is 90% seating, barely any sort of ‘dance’ area yet it’s dark with the volume up so high you can’t hear talking. Unless you’re a proper nightclub type place then you should be able to sit and talk.

My DD (17) doesn't go clubbing as there is nowhere to go near us. She does go out to the pub and to lots of parties and has done since she was 16. She's very sociable. She does have a fake id but she doesn't drink in pubs.

My ds is 19 and at uni. He was going out at 17 too.

Awww this thread is giving fond memories.

I can remember the feeling of excitement when your favorite song came on. The freedom of dancing in the dark, no phones, no photos.

I also think I gained absolutely invaluable experience in spotting and dealing with creepy men. I don't see the same confidence from younger kids and it concerns me.

Interesting thread, thankyou 😊

To answer your question, in London the clubs I used to go to were full of 25-40 year-olds, I would say. I usually went out to see a specific DJ, if that makes sense, so pricier tickets. I only ever saw 18/19 year-olds in clubs in London when I was on gardening leave in 2017 and went out on student nights mid-week because I could.

Everyone is different ☺️! Like the OP, I was out clubbing every weekend from the age of 14. I didn't drink (that took off in my 20s) as I was a poor teenager and didn't like alcohol then. The stuff I got up to was great fun but I know that would set all my alarm bells as a parent. Funny how things work...

Same with raves.

It’s $100+ a ticket for big name DJs and they sell out weeks or months in advance.

Incidentally this is what a lot of young people (myself included, if that counts as I’m in my 30s now) save their money for: seeing specific artists instead of just going out to any old club with a random DJ playing random music they don’t like.

I was clubbing at 17 in Glasgow in the early noughties but many of my friends started from age 15/16.

Honestly I had so many fun experiences and it was a confidence booster in many ways dealing and mixing with a wide range of adults but no doubt some teens sadly had bad experiences due to predators etc. my social circle weren’t big drinkers and no one took drugs.

We were just there for the music, to dance with old friends, to make new friends and sometimes to meet up with a guy! Or for those who did ONS to hook up with them.

I think the 16 year olds don’t go out as much now because the expense and pressure of it all- it seems to be all about getting vip tables etc, being dressed to the nines with heavy contour and also everyone is obsessed with taking pictures so it makes some feel a bit anxious.

And also because there’s a general crackdown on under 18s being in clubs, bars and getting served alcohol. And I guess ID is scrutinised much more carefully.

I also get the impression that “nerd” or “alternative” culture is more popular now so a lot of teens are opting out of clubbing to do things like join various online communities or talk about books or politics on TikTok and basically do things that suit their personality more which is great.

But yeah I have no regrets about my clubbing days! 😂

Sounds amazing. I was a toddler then, but my friends and I are trying to recreate that 90s rave vibe now in our 30s! We love discovering DJs (usually on instagram) and catching their first show in the city. I saw a DJ last month at a disused car park and it was one of the best raves of my life 🤩 I agree it’s much easier to enjoy the rave scene if you live in a big city (we’re in NYC). I would give anything to have been a young adult in the 90s though - you’re very lucky!

Good points well made.

Neither were we. Certainly never stopped us! 😂

I’ve got a 15 1/2 DD and I was out all the time at her age, in the city, down the pool hall, in clubs etc. I look back and think maybe it was a bit too young but equally feel a little sad that her life (and most of her friends as far as I can tell) is soooo home based with the occasional planned very sedate activity with friends for a birthday / end of term type thing.

I’m mid 40s and still love going out dancing in bars and clubs, there’s plenty of young ones about. And also lots 40s/50s/60s which is nice, people don’t have to retire to the working mens club anymore!

I was born mid 80s and while i was 16/17 it became much harder to get into pubs and clubs/get served without ID. My older sister had gone out without issues and regularly got served at 16/17 so i think something changed.

Nowadays you generally won't get in anywhere, so only the older half of the kids in upper 6th will get in in the first part of a year, in the second half more will reach 18 but they'll go out less as revising for exams.

From Google i think it must have been when licensing act 2003 came in.

Some 16 year olds go to lots of house parties. None go clubbing or to pubs because they just won't get served. It's very strict. Staff don't want to get in trouble for serving underage and Think 25 is what most places adhere to.

I think ID is a lot harder to fake now, and also the wellness movement is a big factor. More young people than ever take exercise very seriously and people under 25 are less likely to drink or get high now than they were when I was that age. Drug use amongst 16-24 year olds was at 29.7% in 1995, compared to 16.1% in 2024, for example.

The difference is that we didn't used to get asked for ID very often. You knew which bars would serve under 18 without asking any questions.

One of our 30 year old colleagues got asked for ID the other week and most places now operate a policy that if you look under 25 you will automatically get asked for ID. So I think it's a lot harder to get away with it then it used to be.

My two are 17 and 18. My youngest goes to house parties quite a lot and the eldest goes clubbing every weekend. It’s impossible to get in clubs where we are without ID. They are very strict and if they believe it’s fake they confiscate it. My daughter has been stopped many times because the photo on her driving licence is really dark.

In my case it's not that young people are not going to clubs per se (I was never a particular fan, but it was that or not social life) but more a sad realisation that the world has moved on and young people do things differently to the way they did "in my day". I have similar feeling about children's TV (beyond CBeebies age) not being such a "thing" as it was when I was a child.

The number of people on this thread that have posted that being underage never stopped them going to pubs/clubs who seemingly haven't realised that a dodgy photocopy of your cousins's friend's driving license won't pass as ID these days, suggest that plenty of others are still thinking of things with a nostalgic filter.

Mine (16) are at independent school. Big house parties most weekends - including my house sometimes. All over by midnight. Beats hanging out in a park.

In 2013-2015 I was at sixth form and was out every weekend in Manchester. Used to use older girls IDs or go to dodgy bars.
I don’t think young people bother now, ID is stricter and it’s so expensive. When I was at uni we were all out clubbing and at gigs all the time, living off about £30 a week and this was only a few years ago.
I think young people and students now go for food a lot whereas we didn’t at all. Not sure, but nightlife is dying as a result. Everywhere now is day and evening bars, all the clubs are shutting because there definitely has been a culture shift since Covid.

Mine don't go to clubs but they go to a lot of house parties and gigs. It's not as easy to get into clubs underage now.

I may have gotten in trouble in 6th form

They offered an NUS associate card for 6th forms.....you had to fill in the form and get reception to stamp it..well of course filled it in in erasable gel pen. So they stamped it and I changed my DOB by a year..voila.." legal ID" 😬

Worked great until.i decided share this information with all the year 11s...suffice to say they stopped offering it after that...

(Though I should say as a teen in the early 2000s.i was rather blessed with the chest and looked much older...)

Yes, this was definitely the downside of going out underage. Always seeming to attract the attention of much older men. This wa happening to me from about 13 yrs old, and it was everywhere, not just pubs/clubs etc. Back in the 80s this seemed (unfortunately) really common, and tbh it wasn’t until I was older that I looked back and thought how really bloody creepy that was! I never lied about my age, and in some ways it was seen as really “cool” to hang around with older people, but I was a kid. Luckily this is seen for what it is these days and I do wish I had more adults looking out for me back then. Makes my skin crawl when I think of it now and if it had been my kids I’ve have gone full on warpath mode (to the men, not the kids), because I see it for what it was these days. I also genuinely had a larger group of people/friends that I used to hang around with back then - a big friend group of all ages, many much older - but then where I lived back then there wasn’t anything to do as a young/mid teen and so we all just used to hang around together. I mean it did mean that we got introduced to drink/weed within that group, but nothing more, and no pressure. I do recall tho, staying with grandparents in the summers, in a bigger city, and then not giving a shit what I got up to. Fun at the time, but so many risky situations. I recall being offered drugs one night at about 13, when I wa staying there but was out doing my own thing. I didn’t know much about drugs at the time, but knew enough to suspect it was probably heroin! So was street smart and confident enough to know I wanted nothing to do with that! Luckily this wasn’t my usual friend group from where I lived, and so it was easy to stay away from them afterwards, but there wasn’t any pressure at all. I think I just happened to be there at the time. I’m definitely ND in some way - no idea at the time - but thankfully that also meant I was confident enough to just not really be affected by peer pressure and have ever had a problem in just doing what I want/standing up for myself in any situation because it didn’t occur to me to do otherwise, whereas a lot of people my age were too worried about how they might come across to others, if that makes any sense?
it really boils my piss the way a lot of girls were brought up those days, tbh. I was born in the 70s and had my teen years in the 80s and it is disgustingly the things men thought they could get away with and how it was just seen as “normal” in some ways!