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[Arbiter]

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Children growing up in the United Kingdom suffer greater deprivation, worse relationships with their parents and are exposed to more risks from alcohol, drugs and unsafe sex than those in any other wealthy country in the world, according to a study from the United Nations.

The UK is bottom of the league of 21 economically advanced countries according to a "report card" put together by Unicef on the well-being of children and adolescents, trailing the United States which comes second to last.

Today's findings will be a blow to the government, which has set great store by lifting children out of poverty and improving their education and prospects. Al Aynsley Green, the children's commissioner for England, acknowledges that the UN has accurately highlighted the troubled lives of children. "There is a crisis at the heart of our society and we must not continue to ignore the impact of our attitudes towards children and young people and the effect that this has on their well-being," he says in a response today.

"I hope this report will prompt us all to look beyond the statistics and to the underlying causes of our failure to nurture happy and healthy children in the UK. These children represent the future of our country and from the findings of this report they are in poor health, unable to maintain loving and successful relationships, feel unsafe and insecure, have low aspirations and put themselves at risk.

"It is time to stop demonising children and young people for what goes wrong and start supporting them to make positive choices. To bring an end to the confusing messages we give to young people about their role, responsibility and position in society and ensure that every child feels valued and has their rights respected."

The Unicef team assessed the treatment of children in six different areas - material well-being; health and safety; educational wellbeing, family and peer relationships, behaviours and risks; and the young people's own perceptions of their well-being.

The Netherlands tops the league, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Spain. The bottom five are Portugal, Austria, Hungary, the US and the UK.

Nine countries, all of them in northern Europe, have brought child poverty down below 10%, the report shows. But it remains at 15% in the three southern European countries - Portugal, Spain and Italy - and in the UK, Ireland and the US. Child poverty is a relative measure that shows how far their standard of living has fallen below the national average.

The Unicef report adds: "The evidence from many countries persistently shows that children who grow up in poverty are more vulnerable: specifically, they are more likely to be in poor health, to have learning and behavioural difficulties, to underachieve at school, to become pregnant at too early an age, to have lower skills and aspirations, to be low paid, unemployed and welfare-dependent."

The Conservatives seized on the report, claiming that it endorsed their attack on the way in which Gordon Brown had addressed the issue of child poverty, and the prime minister had demonised the role of children in his drive against antisocial behaviour.

The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, said: "This report tells the truth about Brown's Britain. After 10 years of his welfare and education policies, our children today have the lowest well-being in the developed world."

Labour said it had taken 700,000 people out of child poverty and was mounting an unprecedented investment programme in a network of children's centres. A government spokesman argued that in many cases the data used in the report was several years old and "does not reflect more recent improvements in the UK such as the continuing fall in the teenage pregnancy rate or in the proportion of children living in workless households".

Some of the most shocking findings concern the relationships children and adolescents have with their family and peers. The UK is bottom of the 21 countries.

This, says Unicef, "is as difficult to measure as it is critical to well-being".

To attempt to score countries, the experts have focused on children's own reports of how much time their parents spend "just talking" to them, how many say they eat the main meal of the day with their parents more than once a week and the percentages of 11, 13 and 15-year-olds who find their peers "kind and helpful". UK parents do reasonably well on "talking regularly" - 60% of children say they chat, putting Britain 12th in the league table. But while a similar proportion say they eat together more than once a week, the UK lags towards the bottom of the league, with Italy, Iceland and France at the very top end.

[Darkademic]

I wasn't particularly suprised to be honest, British society is decaying on so many levels. The government has only helped to worsen anti-social behaviour in my opinion, and the more legislation they pass, the worse things will get. Politicians tend to drastically over-simplify the issue, blaming the breakdown of families or some-such, and then they try to tackle the problem by focusing on that one issue. Idiots. The problems with UK society are complex and interrelated, and will not disappear through government legislation.

[Sugar]

Nah, not surprising at all.

It is odd how the 'safest' countries are all classed as 'feminine' countries, whereas those ranking as the worst are typically 'masculine' countries. I think it's Sweden which has been seen as the most feminine country in the western world, as they tend to focus more on the health and upbringing of their children. Even as an individualistic culture they still focus on society's health as a whole, whereas we in Britain are more likely to keep to ourselves.

The traditional extended family structure is dying in Britain and the States too, so children are being brought up in a more isolated environments; though I will admit this isn't the case for most families. Yes, politicians do tend to blame the breakdown of families as the reason for all this crap, and I do agree with them to some extent, but for the most part the government needs to start focusing on things outside the family, as that's where most children are conditioned into accepting maladaptive and antisocial behaviour.

People are very quick to blame parents, though I think that it is a major responsibility of the parents to ensure that their children are aware of the risks of drugs, drinking, etc earlier on than most schools do, otherwise they're more likely to be introduced to the anti-social culture before they're fully aware of the dangers. I don't think people give most families enough credit sometimes, as bringing children up in this society is much more challenging than as little as 10 years ago.

As times change inevitably so do attitudes, and I think that to change the way children are being brought up the issue needs to be tackled on multiple sides, not just blaming the family structure and the incompetency of certain upbringings.

[Devlin1991]

Coming from Glasgow I know this truth all too well. I do have a pretty good relationship with my family but it has been sketchy at times in the past. I had a slightly neddy phase when I was 14-16 but luckily I did not make any major enemies or allies with major enemies so I was low-key enough that I could fall out of the scene un-noticed. Part of this was due to becoming a bigger gamer and spent more time online then going out which helped fill the void. There is lots of tension in schools atm, which without sounding racist, is partially down to the mass immigration of people into poorer areas and schools taking into too many catchment areas which leads to classes with people who hate each others guts causing friction and making it hard to teach. In the most parts of Glasgow and especially the east end. Every area has a gang, sometimes more than 1 if its a larger area and there is a lot of territorial battles. If you grew up in a rough area you need to be very very careful where and when you travel if you are not "known" and on good terms with the local gang, even then you need to be careful of other groups. Every weekend and some weeknights you can have groups of 30+ from the ages of 13 to low twenties wandering around drunk or pilled out their mind looking for fights. Partially because there is nothing else to do, all the local sports centers change extortionate prices, buses and trains are expensive and the council ran stuff is generally pretty shitty and are a good way to get harassed. There is then the issue that plagues a few major cities, and that is that religion is a huge area of conflict. Protestants dislike Catholics who return the favor, both of them dislike the Muslim communities because small portions of it refuse to integrate into the UK lifestyle and essentially stick to themselves and teach the stoneage ideals that have destroyed the middle east into the UK, the UK government is spineless and refuses to deal with this issue. For a Christian country is relatively atheist and the theists have started to accept it, then this comes along in the last 10 year or so and it escalated again. One of the other issues is that the "NED" or chav for the English, culture which is nothing but violence, drug misuse and unemployment tends to breed at a higher rate and you have a lot of 31 year old grandmothers and 15 year old mums who then doom their children to lead the same shitty lifestyle.

The only way I can forsee the UK getting its act together living style wise would be a huge revamp of all the shit areas (which they are trying to do) and stop throwing people in jail for underage drinking and Cannabis use. They turn children who are only slightly dodgy but may grow out of it (like me) into criminals who now struggle with employment and come out resenting the country and possibly with major grudges to settle if it was some ones fault they got caught in the first place. The religious issue is also a huge culprit but that is even tougher to remove. The catholic/protestant battle has existed for hundreds of years and is still raging on in Ireland worse than it is in the UK. The government needs to remove the churches influence in education before we end up like the US where some states are considering removing evolution from schools because it "offends" a portion of the population. Schools are a place for children to learn facts, religion should not interfere with this in anyway.

The school system has also been negatively influence by the corporate style targets the government impose so they can say "yay 0.5% increase in pass-rate from last year, we did good". Teachers are forced to do nothing but teach students how to pass the exact exam that will be given that year. Instead of properly teaching you the subject and sparking your interest in further learning, school became, follow textbook to the letter, do nothing but past-papers for weeks to learn all the possible exam questions that have came up in the past so that you are almost doing the real exam from memory instead of being extremely good at problem solving questions that would make you better at the subject. If a pupil is struggling and barely not making the pass mark, instead of giving the pupil lots of help, they instantly throw you down to the lower level so that you don't impact the pass % of that class. They would rather you got a pass at a level you found insultingly easy that have a tiny chance of failing at the level you are mentally capable of.

On a political side, manifestos have became nothing but a "who can write the best bunch of short bullet points to get votes" doesn't matter if we intend to do any of it. The current party got in because of a major student vote as they pledged to lower tuition fees, instead they done a middle finger to the students and increased them. The government before them wanted to revamp the UK's drug policy to modernise it, and when the panel of scientists they asked to give them advice gave them the answer "Cannabis is less dangerous than Alcohol and tobacco and should be brought down, possibly legalised" they fired the head of the panel and then put cannabis up to a class B from a C, and decided to make a point of massively increasing Cannabis busts to try to lower its usage which failed badly and done nothing but throw more people who had no negative impact on society into jails full of violent offenders.

Edited by Devlin1991, 18 April 2012 - 12:51 am.

[Reel]

I'm not surprised at all. My brother lives in London and I've seen huge gaps between different social groups and how ignored a lot of people are. Since I'm not from the UK I cant refer on the school system and how the society works as a whole, but as a frequent tourist I'm not surprised at all.

[Apolon]

i don't know how good it that report but i see here ppl who grow up well tba..

[Donkzy]

Im not joking but i live in Wigan, used go out on streets when younger like most of us, but I had morals and knew what was right and wrong, which was taught to me by my parents, ok im no angel but the gangs of ferile little bastereds that will abuse and kick off with anyone because they know thier untouchable realy makes me sick, I never ever would of given abuse to say a young couple walking home or a policeman, its become so bad that its considered normal in England. Only thing these people adhear to is a beating, its thier parents fault and their parents parents fault and i see it as a snowball effect, we are de-evolving at an alarming rate and are going back to our more basic instincts and not thinking any more.
I suppose our work shy and forever drunk socitety has a lot to do with this.

[Ashqaz]

This doesn't surprise me at all, like people have previously said it's down to the kids parents that are making them turn out the way they are. A lot of these kids are actually quite intelligent and are generally nice people but their parents don't bother with them and teach them to have a drive to improve their lives. All that they see is that once they have a kid of their own that they will get a house and everything paid for them and then it will be the same with their kids and so on ...

i don't know how good it that report but i see here ppl who grow up well tba..

That's because gamers aren't really the type who are out on the streets all the time gaming just takes up to much time to socialise

[Damo]

I fortunately had a good upbringing but so many of my friends we're not so lucky.
It's also interesting to note that my home town of Redditch has had the highest recorded number of teenage pregnacies in the country for several years and has topped the European count also.

[ZeCooL]

It's also interesting to note that my home town of Redditch has had the highest recorded number of teenage pregnacies in the country for several years and has topped the European count also.

Edited by ZeCooL, 18 April 2012 - 10:25 am.

[Donkzy]

It's also interesting to note that my home town of Redditch has had the highest recorded number of teenage pregnacies in the country for several years and has topped the European count also.

Hmm interesting I used to holiday in Redditch?? oh dear their may be a lot of little Donks i think

[Bibidiboo]

Go netherlands

That's because gamers aren't really the type who are out on the streets all the time gaming just takes up to much time to socialise

That's just not true :/

[Lycan]

Im not joking but i live in Wigan, used go out on streets when younger like most of us, but I had morals and knew what was right and wrong, which was taught to me by my parents, ok im no angel but the gangs of ferile little bastereds that will abuse and kick off with anyone because they know thier untouchable realy makes me sick, I never ever would of given abuse to say a young couple walking home or a policeman, its become so bad that its considered normal in England. Only thing these people adhear to is a beating, its thier parents fault and their parents parents fault and i see it as a snowball effect, we are de-evolving at an alarming rate and are going back to our more basic instincts and not thinking any more.
I suppose our work shy and forever drunk socitety has a lot to do with this.

^ this ^
The mistake we've made, is removing things like spanking, and getting a clip round the ear. It's when politics interferes in everything; purely for votes, that we see this decline.
In the past, people were disciplined if they did anything wrong; even to the extent that they didn't have their shirts tucked in properly, or their ties done up. Look at us now! Policemen aren't even allowed to handle offenders in a bad way in case they cry assault and threaten to sue.

The "eating at the table" rule was synonymous with Britain in the past; in fact, the first thing people thought of when asked about Britain was good mannerisms, politeness and discipline. While this message was somewhat due to propaganda during the war, the fact remains that the polite culture in Britain existed. Now all I can think of when I imagine Britain, is chavs, and failure. In order to succeed, you need to be surrounded by those who want to succeed. We have so little of this now, that it's becoming normal to accept a lower paid job, and work in a dead end job to make ends meet, than go the extra mile and work somewhere you'll achieve something.

[Darkademic]

^ this ^
The mistake we've made, is removing things like spanking, and getting a clip round the ear. It's when politics interferes in everything; purely for votes, that we see this decline.
In the past, people were disciplined if they did anything wrong; even to the extent that they didn't have their shirts tucked in properly, or their ties done up. Look at us now! Policemen aren't even allowed to handle offenders in a bad way in case they cry assault and threaten to sue.

The "eating at the table" rule was synonymous with Britain in the past; in fact, the first thing people thought of when asked about Britain was good mannerisms, politeness and discipline. While this message was somewhat due to propaganda during the war, the fact remains that the polite culture in Britain existed. Now all I can think of when I imagine Britain, is chavs, and failure. In order to succeed, you need to be surrounded by those who want to succeed. We have so little of this now, that it's becoming normal to accept a lower paid job, and work in a dead end job to make ends meet, than go the extra mile and work somewhere you'll achieve something.

I've read studies which show spanking has no positive effect, and is actually harmful.

Bad behaviour is a result of being treated badly, whether that means physical/verbal abuse or simply being ignored. Too many children are treated like shit and grow up thinking it's normal treat others like shit.

[Bibidiboo]

^ this ^
The mistake we've made, is removing things like spanking, and getting a clip round the ear. It's when politics interferes in everything; purely for votes, that we see this decline.
In the past, people were disciplined if they did anything wrong; even to the extent that they didn't have their shirts tucked in properly, or their ties done up. Look at us now! Policemen aren't even allowed to handle offenders in a bad way in case they cry assault and threaten to sue.

Im sorry, but the netherlands is first in this list, and do none of the above. Disciplining people does not help them and the police never do such things here. (excl riots and drunks(usually englishmen ) and even with drunks i usually see them try to handle it peacefully, even when they're beligerent) besides the studies that show it doesnt work, that's practical knowledge right there.

Edited by Bibidiboo, 22 April 2012 - 12:55 pm.

[Lycan]

When I say "spanking", I meant it in the traditional sense; it was a practice which made you realise you've done something wrong. I absolutely don't condone beating of children (like the baby P incident). Absolutely 100% NO. I never had bruises, scars or anything of the sort. I was never spanked anywhere other than on my bottom. This then is the difference between spanking and beating. When we were told off, we'd be asked a few hours later about what we'd learnt. After we explained what we'd done wrong, we'd get ice- cream, or pizza etc. as a 'well done". This stuck like glue.
Personally, I was "spanked" when I was young, and at the same time my cousin (only a year younger than me) wasn't because his parents didn't believe in that sort of stuff.

To this day, I am happy that I was shown right from wrong; I am glad that it was instilled into my core - that some things are bad (we only got spanked at the worst offenses, and after we always got ice-cream )
To this day, my uncle regrets not having more control over my cousin. Now that he's older, he doesn't listen at all to anything my uncle says, and doesn't have the respect my father commands (my father could tell me to go do six hours of gardening in the middle of next week's beta, and I wouldn't say no - not out of fear, but because of respect).

People watch soaps and see people arguing with parents and they see it as normal. They see chavs drinking and swearing in public and they accept is as "cool" and something they should so as well. To this day I've never heard anyone in my family (or extended family) use profanity in front of my parents).
People are going off the rails because they don't respect authority. Teenagers are being wrapped in bubblewrap and told to do what they want. If they do poorly at school, they get dropped to a lower group (like in the OP). They have to learn the hard way when they hit rock bottom, have no qualifications, and are too immature to be accepted into mainstream society, when all it would have taken was a slap on the wrist and to be told not to do it again.


I can't speak for everyone, since as Dark said, the problems are interrelated and have many roots to them. I was brought up gently but firmly. Risk and reward. My dad would work 10- hour shifts and still make sure we talked about problems we had, either at school or at home. Maybe I'm biased, but I see my cousin and I feel happy that my ass was once sore...