Easily seen the schools are back...

[Board Admin]

I
Kids are an easy target at times. I read in a newspaper recently about a survey where kids were described as "vermin". I mean how can young people have any respect for their elders when their elders say things like that about them.

Malky

Malky, you're so right and you've raised an important point here. I hope it's okay to continue it in this thread as it's relevant. Barnardos UK have been concerned about the demonising of children for a while now and have made this shocking advert to raise the problem. It's horrific but does get the message across about how society views our young in an increasingly negative way.

Please take note that Barnardos have pointed out that under thirteens must view with an adult.




Sorry but that youtube button doesn't work for me

[gizmo]

What the hell were they trying to get across in that film... I know you have got to try and catch peoples attention but deary me.

[Govangirl]

Sorry gizmo but I actually welcome it. Barnardos did a lot of research into this and they found terrifying results - many people admitted they were scared of children with four in ten referring to them as "feral". Do remember that the advert is based entirely on language gleaned from online comment pages (there are a lot of people out there that read the Daily Mail!). Don't you think it's disgusting that we refer to our young people as 'animals', 'feral' and 'vermin'? I do. The charity also found that the great British public overestimates, by a factor of four, the amount of crime committed by young people. Where did that fear and intolerance come from? I myself have noticed a great increase in the way our youngsters are demonised. I've always hated the fact that the two nearest shops to my school have a sign on their door that states: 'Only two schoolchildren allowed in the shop at a time'. Try replacing 'schoolchildren' with another controversial, minority or ethic group. It would be shocking. Our kids are well-behaved and honest citizens and it's only fear that makes the shopkeepers put up that sign. I often use this example with the students in class when we look at arguments in personal writing. They do feel demonised.
And I don't think Barnardos are being naive: they do recognise that a minority of children are anti-social and commit crimes, making firm action necessary but fgs, the vast majority of children are decent, caring and conscientious kids - as shown by your own youngsters this week.

I'm quite sure gizmo that Daily Mail readers will complain in their hundreds about the advert and Barnardos will be forced to apologise and maybe Jonathan Ross will be made to stand in the stocks just to make it more acceptable to the public BUT I stand by it. I find it more disturbing that our children are shown such intolerance.

[Govangirl]

Sorry, that was a case of strong feelings coming out there! Maybe the mods need to move this to Speakers Corner?

[Malky]

GG, if you change the uk to www in the link, then the youtube tags work.

Malky

[Govangirl]

See what I mean Malky? I changed it and it still doesn't go to that picture thingy for me - It's me!

[Malky]

It's fixed now - you had url tags on it, not youtube.

That's a strong video that Barnardos have produced BTW.

Malky

[Govangirl]

It's fixed now - you had url tags on it, not youtube.

Malky

It's fixed now - you had url tags on it, not youtube.

That's a strong video that Barnardos have produced BTW.

Malky

Very strong. I can see why it would upset people but sometimes the message needs to be strong.

[gizmo]

The newsagent along the road from me used to have a "2 kids only" sign on his door. When I questioned him he told me at lunchtimes the kids went in in a bunch and stole whatever they could lay their hands on while he was being distracted. It didnt happen when he could keep an eye on them. I didnt like it, but then again it wasnt my income and I couldnt think of a better way of preventing it. As for the comments about animals, feral and vermin cant honestly say I have ever heard anyone use those words about children and I doubt 40% of people even know what feral means. I think Barnados have gone for shock tactics probably as part of their fund raising efforts, I hope it works for them as they do a lot of good works but IMO it was over the top
I note there seems to be a demonising of people who read the Daily Mail, but that would appear to be allowed. Much as though I hate to admit it, I read that paper,(of course I always hide it inside my copy of the BNP News in case anyone sees me coming out of the shop). I stopped reading the Sun when I was told only thick folk read that, if I have got to change paper again, which one should I go to.
I dont know what Jonathon Ross has got to do about anything, but sticking him in stocks is a good idea.

[Govangirl]

Much as though I hate to admit it, I read that paper.

Why the comment if you think I'm demonising you then? Seriously, gizmo, I apologise if you think I was getting at you. It was just that if you take a look at that paper's reader comments you can see where Barnardos got most of their findings from! But I wasn't getting at you for reading that paper, really I wasn't. Sorry

[gizmo]

I know it is momentarily off topic but comment like.. what do you expect he/she reads....
The Mail..... is a fascist
The Gaurdien...... is a social worker
The Sun............ is only interested in page 3
The Star........... can only do pictures
The Record........it depends on which team you support
The Sport..........well I suppose that is the exception
are rather sweeping and used to disregard other peoples opinion. I do not mean you were doing that, in fact I do it myself.. re.comment about The Sport. Although I agree the letters page in the Mail and indeed the Courier can be interesting, it doesnt mean everyone believes everything that is written. Again this is just something that gets on my wick and not meant to be an attack.

[A Horse called Juan Face]

The Daily Mail's stance on emo (which is actually short for emotional hardcore and has absolutely nothing to do with make-up and piercings) is ridiculous. They say the rate of teen suicide is higher depending on what music you listen to. That's like saying it's higher depending on what team you support, and I spent my teens supporting Aberdeen, and look - I'm still here. I will say though that the whole scene where everyone dresses the same to express their own individuality is somewhat of an oxymoron. I also like the way a lot of them look at me with prejudice when I knew who My Chemical Romance were when most of them had no pubes. Tossers. (At this point I was going to insert a joke about how emo/goth/ferret/whatever-generic-tag-you-want-to-use teen suicide may not actually be a bad thing, but I've decided against it, because some people can't take jokes). This shouldn't be an issue anyway, because these are the people who are going to be lawyers when they're older and their favourite band will be Simply Red. Deviated a little bit there, but I'm not sorry.

[Malky]

.....Simply Red.

Well there's no reason to use language like that

Malky

[Martin]

....

[Govangirl]

Sorry Martin, I am no old hippy, commie or politically correct new age parent but your post saddened me greatly. You claim you wouldn't advocate hunting kids down with shotguns but you would cheerfully hack off their hands? What you are describing is a tragic breakdown of both the justice system and the family unit but that's no reason to take the law into your own hands. I sympathise with your transport problem but your response is way over the top. I'm not 'slagging you off' btw just saying I'm really shocked.