Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: Young people from areas affected by violence and looting have spoken out to condemn the riots and have called for more attention to be placed on young voices as the causes of the outbreaks begin to be examined.
[11 August 2011] - All 20 members of Enfield’s youth parliament spoke of their shock at the destruction of parts of their community. In a statement the young people said: "We are shocked and appalled by the destruction that has been caused by a small group of trouble makers, who are entirely unrepresentative of a majority of young people in Enfield. "This behaviour is utterly unacceptable and only damages the perception of Enfield, our communities and young people as a whole. We hope that the violence comes to an end immediately and that we can take steps to ensure that this is not repeated again." Young reporters at youth magazine Live, which is based in Brixton, have been talking to young people around London to find out their thoughts on the riots. Celeste Houlter, editor of Live magazine, said: "The majority of young people are saying that they can’t believe this has happened and they shouldn’t have been looting and it is a terrible thing. "It puts young people back a couple of years in terms of how we have been seen through the media." Referring to the current media coverage of the riots, Houlter said she was concerned at how few young people are being asked to comment. "I feel the media are not talking to young people enough," she said. "They should be trying to talk to young people who did the rioting as well to find out their reasons for doing it, to get to the cause of why it happened." A range of reasons have been cited by young people as to why a minority of their peers became involved in the events of the past few days. "Some young people think it was because the opportunity was there and they went for it, some are saying they did it out of frustration because of all the cuts that have happened and because youth centres have gone," Houlter said. "People our age are in a difficult position right now because we don’t know how our future is going to turn out. Are we going to be home owners, will we all be in debt, what is our lifestyle going to be like, are we going to struggle or be independent?" She added that while parents of children under the age of 16 should be held responsible for where their children were during the riots, those with teenagers had a more difficult job. "Once you hit the age of 16 and you have made up your mind that no one is going to control you. It is very difficult to take control of a teenager and tell them what to do," she added. Further Information:
Owner: Janaki Mahadevanpdf: http://www.cypnow.co.uk/Youth_Work/article/1084600/young-people-consulte...