Today’s teenagers are at so many risks - obesity, sexually transmitted disease, smoking, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, teenage pregnancy and suicide, writes our Teen Blogger Rhian.
Doctors say we are the first generation to have grown up less healthy than our parents.
Childhood infections are a thing of the past. Now there’s drugs and sexually transmitted diseases going around, the difference is these are preventable.
To be honest I can’t believe that doctors have just realised. I’ve known and I’m sure other people have known that teenagers are unhealthy.
But the media doesn’t help bringing out films of how being a gangster and doing drugs makes you the cool one, when actually it’s going to have a huge impact on their long term health.
I know were old enough to say no and decide what we want to do, but that’s the image the media are putting out there and obesity well that is a joke. Children and teenagers are afffected by this but it’s really their fault.
I mean showing adverts of David Beckham drinking coke and eating MaDonalds, it’s no wonder kids and teenagers are getting fat. If a kid sees that on TV, of course they’re going to go out and eat it. It doesn’t have to be David Beckham it could be any celebrity.
But the doctors have come up with a plan, rethink all the age limits. They think some of the age limits should go up. Will it make a difference if they put the age up on say drinking for example?
OK it will make it harder for teenagers to get hold of alcohol but it won’t stop them trying.
Some people say leave them to it and they will see the effects for themselves, what do you think should be done?
6 Comments
What you think you are the first, poor deluded girl, try being brought up in the 50’s and 60’s.
Its because today is a nanny state and you havn’t got a clue.
Todays youth expect everything on a plate.
I agree with Sid’s comments about this country being a nanny-state.
The discipline has been taken away from schools, colleges etc so this of course will have an impact on what children will and wont do. Around ten years ago, you probably wouldnt of heard of a ten year old being excluded from school because of drink and druugs - nowadays, its pretty common. Whats the difference - well for a start, children have less to do with their spare time, without it costing a fortune. The discsipline is lacking both on the educational and parental fronts for a lot of young people so they are under the illusion that they can literally get away with anything.
Some young people dont have any fear or respect for the law, other people around them, the elderely etc so this is apparent in their behaviour.
Obesity of a problem, not because of David Beckham eating burgers and drinking coke, but because children today expect to be treated like mini adults insofar as they can make their own decisions, even though half of the time they are uninformed choices (they are not aware of the risks of too much fat, salt, sugar) and parents let the do it.
A vicious circle that only the individual can change.
Sid Conlin, brought up like me in the 50’s and 60’s, no doubt learned “Argumentum ad hominem” from the adults around him: if you don’t like the message, insult the messenger. Calling Rhian belittling names (”poor deluded girl”) contributes nothing to any discussion of her point - and I say she has one: that we adults are not setting her generation suitable goals, aspirations and role models. It merely sets a bad example of lack of respect for others.
Today’s teenagers are at so many risks - obesity, sexually transmitted disease, smoking, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, teenage pregnancy and suicide,
How I remember the swinging 60’s and the early 70’s.
Mini skirts. Mini cars, Coffee bars,Hippy’s,Flowers in your hair.
Even in them days we had obesity.Hurrah for the kaftans we wore, they hid a lot of sins.
Sexually transmitted disease, this was the age of free love.
Smoking,remember the adverts for John Players no.6, Embassy, etc. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol,any party with plenty of alcohol and we were there. Teenage pregnancy we were the new society, we had children and were not ashamed to admit it.We were the first of a new breed of unmarried mothers. And suicide,yes we even had that. Im ffraid to say its all part of growing up.As for being unhealth well that must be something your doing wrong.
How can any one say its only risky, being a teenager? It doesnt matter you are in this day and age the risks are there. Its just that some people lead an isolated lifestyle, away from modern society, and hardly ever see what it has turned in to.
If people feel there is a problem they should actively do something to try and change it, not sit there complaining…
Great comments, Sid (NOT!) People like you are part of the reason why teenagers today “haven’t got a clue.” Marketing was still just just getting started in the decades before the 80’s which was when materialism really kicked in. Nowadays, kids are targetted by consumerism right from infancy and it’s effects upon society have undermined the communities which used to exist. No wonder they’re confused and endangered from so many different angles. Good topic, Rhian.