uk worst place to grow up

uk worst place to grow up

acording to UNICEF research the UK comes bottom of the league of the industrialised nations as a place to grow up. The Netherlands is top.
Can this be right?

link?

http://society.guardian.co.uk/children/story/0,,2012512,00.html

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007070415,00.html


"The report presents a sad picture of relationships with friends, which are so important to children. Not much more than 40% of the UK's 11, 13 and 15-year-olds find their peers "kind and helpful", which is the worst score of all the developed countries.

The UK takes bottom place "by a considerable distance" for the number of young people who smoke, abuse drink and drugs, engage in risky sex and become pregnant at too early an age. For 16 out of 17 OECD countries with the data, between 15% and 28% of young people have had sex by the age of 15. For the UK, the figure is 40%.

On education, the UK comes 17th out of 21. At the age of 15, British children score relatively well on reading, mathematical and scientific literacy. But more than 30% of 15- to 19-year-olds are not in education or training and are not looking beyond low-skilled work."

To be fair, the US are only slightly above us.

I think it's symptomatic of a pressured society with uninspiring education (up to GCSE level) and a failure to foster drive and ambition in young people.

The UK is a highly cynical nation, I don't think it's ever been any different throughout our history it just so happens we now pay people to go out with stick and measure this kind of thing now..

isn't the pressure they're under precisely the attempt to foster drive and ambition? what about being happy?
A lot of my dads generation were content to have a job and saw it as a means to have a life. They weren't on some treadmill. Education was about something more than fitting you for the workplace

i read this in the metro today today...

not suprizing really saying as we have 2 year olds being sexually assulted to death

Yeah, cant say im surprised either, the pressure on kids these days at school is at it's peak. Previously kids who weren't the best at school, were at least assured of working in a trade, steel, coal etc. Nowadays children are basically told if they don't stick in at school there is no future for them. Children are expected to all become doctors, lawyers, teachers etc, but the reality is that not everyone can reach such high proffessions. I think more needs to be done to assure children that jobs as mechanics, joiners and plumbers aren't poor jobs.

I also think there is a lack of leisure provision for children, kids are told they can't use such a facility after 8pm or have to be accompanied by an adult. Again more needs to be done to encourage kids to socialise and exercise in groups.

My final point is that in the UK we live in a society of fear> Parents are over protective of children and fear Soham like incidents and therefore give their kids very little freedom. Again this leads to children being socially excluded.

Im not too sure i agree with the point about family break up. Undoubtedly it is factor but probably not as important an indicator as the above points. Across the board divorce rates are rising, but if you look at the statstics, the UK has the same divorce rate (2.5%) as the likes of, Belgium, Finland, France and Germany. Only Italy, Ireland and Spain are notably better and this can be put down to stronger religious beliefs about marriage in these countries.

defo agree, have you seen the film idiocracy?

basically some guy gets put in stasis, something goes wrong and he ends up in the future, and because all the thick charvas/hic's have been breeding like wildfire, everyone in the world is thick, its proper shit film, but its funny to see how the world my turn out if we keep on the same track.

They're trying to make out having sex below under 16 is something really so bad.

People have got pissed at a young age since god knows when.

Not many teens get on with there family.

Britain as a whole is fatter than all European countries so obviously the children are going to be.



haha and looking at the figures the Portuguese must be a proper angry nation, they came top for all of the fighting related polls.

Good job you're never going to get a woman to have sex with you then isn't it?

Very sensible post. The idea that you 'fail' if you don't go to university defintely needs to addressed.

there's probably more leisure provisions in the UK than there has been throughout its history.... we live in a luxurious age and one of the wealthiest nations in the world.... My old man's idea of fun was sticking a beano annual on a rollerskate to make a cart he could go down hills on.

Kids today are spoiled for choice.

bollocks

there were computers/floodlight football pitches/walkmans/etc etc when we were growing up and Im perfectly normal and sane

One of the main issues if the family unit. As the old saying goes, you dont know where you're going if you don't know where you've been.... (or something like that)

did you just call me a dingleberry

I'm sorry but what do kids know of social wealth erosion?

Kids today have more options than kids of yesteryear... if some kids go off the rails suggesting that its a product of boredom is a bit far fetched.

"My 15 year old shot his 15 year old mate in a gang land feud... but it wasn't our fault, it's the governments fault for closing the local youth club"