I don't quite believe that all our children want is to join our society. I do think they enjoy creating their own, set as far apart as possible from what adults enjoy. But that doesn't stop them (well, some of them ...) from coming back to their parents' tastes later on.
I've often found that the surest way to get them interested is a committed adult able to relate to them. Near me there's a group of 13- to 19-year-olds, about fifteen of them, who sing everything that takes their fancy and have just made their second CD. But I'm quite convinced they wouldn't exist if it wasn't for an adult singer who doesn't appear with them but helps them with their arrangements and generally organises and encourages them. That's great - but there aren't enough like him.
Also, I'm convinced folk's bad reputation has a lot to do with preconceived ideas and outdated prejudices perpetuated in people's minds by the media, among other things. (I've even seen a few instances in this thread ...) If a paper like The Observer can define a folk festival as 'drinking your beer with one finger in your ear' (May '99 - as a joke, but still), what do you expect?
What can we do? I've no recipes. But I would like to mention that my interest in folksongs was started by a schoolteacher who taught us the odd song. It really caught fire when I found one of those songs on an LP on my first visit to Britain 28 years ago. I talked the guy who owned it into selling it to me and never looked back.
Ah yes, and the album was - Mick Lowe will never guess this - by The Spinners. They weren't that bad, after all, although looking back I must agree they simplified things a lot to make them 'palatable' for mass audiences - as did The Clancys, The Corries, and The Dubliners. When they started, folk was the chosen music of a lot of young people! - Susanne