I've heard it said on numerous occasions by numerous people that the problem for young people today is that generally both parents work all say and as a result young people form attachment among themselves within their peer groups that would normall form in the context of the family unit.

Consequently the peer group becomes the famly unit and young people become more susceptible to influence from them while the influence their p[arents exert is comparatively much less.

I am not convinced that young people today are any worse than young people from previous generations - I live opposite a state secondary school and most of the kids are friendly and polite.

I do think that young people today face a much wider and more complex range of pressures than my generation did, largely as a result of advertising, media and poor role models in the public eye, but not just for those reasons.