Newquay - does it deserve the vitriol...? Have we all forgotten what it's like to be teenagers?

[OhBling]

I've read multiple stories about the terrible news about those three teenagers who died in newquay celebrating finishing their exams. It's awful.

But I've seen a lot of attacks been made towards Newquay directly. Am I the only one who remembers being 16 or 18 or 21? I often think back on my behaviour at that age and shudder. DH and I have talked about how hard it will be in due course to have teenagers when we remember so vividly how stupid we were. I'd like to think I was at least brought up sensibly enough that while I made some mistakes, I made fewer than I could have and was generally not quite as stupid as it's possible to be but...

Surely, it's not about the place they go to drink - if it wasn't a tacky nightclub strip beach town, it would be somewhere else?

Personally, I think it's terrible and I wish we could stop it, but blaming the town seems pointless. Teenagers have been behaving like this as long as there have been teenagers in the world?

OB, teenagers have certainly been behaving like this for ever, at certain teenage memories, but I think it's because they do it in Newquay and other such places en masse, and go there with the intention of getting bladdered and having as much sex as possible - often in public places - that makes it unacceptable and gives the towns such awful reputations.

It's another import from the US, isn't it, like the end of school prom.

Tacky in the extreme, and can turn into a nightmare.

Of course teenager will drink if they can, but Newquay has a responsibility; bar owners etc know that most of those coming are underage for drinking. They should be very rigorous in checking ID, it is all too easy to use borrowed or fake ID.