Let’s show young people that we care

The Times once asked the question, “What’s wrong with the world today?” GK Chesterton replied, “Dear Sir, I am.” Similarly, when asked about the challenges facing children and young people today, my answer is: us – all of us who give mixed messages and lack the courage to do the right thing even when it’s di cult or unpopular.

Having worked with children and young people I have seen how this generation is struggling on many fronts: a growing mental health pandemic, inequality of opportunity and poverty, a widening education attainment gap, obesity, violent crime, and exposure to sexual violence and pornography to name but a few.

These are legitimate answers to the question about the challenges facing our younger generation. Yet I’ve spent my career looking upstream for the early intervention solutions to social problems and the starting point for helping our young people is us – all of us who shape and in uence public policy and social attitudes.

Generation Z are blessed with great assets like social awareness, a passion for justice, a commitment to work hard, creativity, and sensitivity. However, they are also deeply insecure, sceptical of authority and institutions, anxious, often intolerant about perceived intolerance, and open to be in uenced by subjective truth over objective facts.

Why? Because successive generations have let them down. We are grossly inconsistent in how we treat children and young people. We want them to take responsibility for their actions, while protecting them from every risk possible; we tell them to follow rules, when those older fail to pass good laws or stick to them; we talk about freedom without understanding that ourishing comes within the safety of boundaries.

Take exposure to sexual violence and pornography. Polling for CARE showed that 80% of adults support age veri cation on online pornographic websites. Indeed, CARE helped secure provision for this in Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 (DEA). But this section of the Act has never been enacted. What message does that send children and young people?

It’s simply a matter of the will to do the right thing. Yes, one measure alone won’t x complex problems, but it can send a signal to our younger generation that we care and are willing to take action to protect and empower them.