Headlines
Sex, Drugs and Vodka
4th February 2008
The media portrays teenage culture in a variety of ways, but it seems that most attention is paid to rising teenage pregnancies, binge drinking and drug-fuelled violence. But is it justified? Or is teenage culture in the UK not as bad as it would seem?
My personal experiences as a teenager has led me to think that teenage society is better than the tabloids would have their readers believe. Most of my friends don’t smoke, don’t regularly have sex with people they barely know or even get drunk that often. One could make the conclusion that I have led a sheltered life and I wouldn’t disagree – it’s not often I come across the type of people the newspapers like to make news of.
However, recently I met a lot of people from different areas of Hereford to those that the majority of my friends come from. And I found that, as sociable as some of these people were, most of them swore more, smoked more and 'slept around' more. One girl had already had an abortion at the age of 15.
So what can be concluded from this? Are the tabloids right in portraying teenage culture in such a seedy light? It’s undeniable that teenage binge drinking is a serious problem in society, and I admit that I myself quite often get drunk given the chance (but that’s not to say that I do every week or so). It is also undeniable that 1 in every 25 females aged 15-17 get pregnant every year in England according to official statistics, with almost half of these leading to abortion.
Whatever the case, whilst Britain’s teenagers’ behaviour is comparatively more colourful than that of our European neighbours, lets not forget the sex scandals and drug addictions of many of the fully grown celebrities that the tabloids take equal pleasure in splashing across their front pages.
Anon