What we do

Generation Youth Issues considers the development of children and young people as a twin process of adult guidance and peer discovery. Today however both of these processes are being undermined.

Criminalisation and distrust

Too often today adults shirk their responsibility to the children and young people in their community, perceiving them as criminals or nuisances rather than neighbours. The result is a distancing between the generations and distrust in the community. Part of the work of Generation Youth Issues is to contest the criminalisation of youth and the fear displayed by adults.

Selected reading:

Teenage curfews warning BBC December 2000
Are scruffy youth so scary? by Stuart Waiton, May 2001
Curfew scheme stands alone BBC August 2001
Epidemic of fear by Frank Furedi, March 2002

Damaging intervention and risk panic

Paralleling criminalisation and fear is the image of children and young people as victims or at risk. The result of this has been the overprotection of children and the focus on the risk of the activities they face while growing up. Here adult interventionists meddle in peer relations and friendship groups fearing bullying, racism and the abuse of power while the activities that children and young people engage in are curtailed because they are deemed too risky. The intervention of third party adults damages the opportunities for peers to mix freely and experience relationships as equals. The risk panic has seen many opportunities for children and young people disappear or change significantly for the worse. Generation Youth Issues seeks to question many of the forms of adult intervention in the lives of children and young people and burst the paralyzing risk panic.

Selected reading:

Young people, informal education and association by Mark K. Smith, September 2001
From friends to prefects by Simon Knight, April 2001
Play on by Dr Jennifer Cunningham, January 2002
The therapeutic society by Dr Michael Fitzpatrick, November 2002

Research and recommendations

The points sketched out above have been developed through research and debate since Generation Youth Issues was formed in 1996. As Generation Youth Issues has developed it has aimed to contribute to our understanding of children and young people and the society in which they live.

Selected reading:

NSPCC Report? A picture of innocence by Stuart Waiton, March 2001
Children safer despite the worries of parents The Times, June 2000
In the shadow of Soham Scotland on Sunday, August 2002
What happened to last year's big idea? BBC, November 2002