Society is a social contract. It works if we all take part, if we have a place within it and feel wanted by it. Every generation faces challenges and, in each generation, we adults are often in despair of our young.

What has really changed this century is the increasing pressure created by a 24-hour global media, and technology which brings wonderful benefits – but there is a downside, too. The global communication age has brought a sense of muddle, of confusion about what is important, combining with social fragility to put young people into a dangerous position.

As society's classic framework changes, fractures have occurred and we find ourselves rather like a broken washing-machine, stuck on a slow-spin cycle.

My 10-year-old daughter sources most of her information online
and communicates with her peers in a totally different way, making it hard for adults to understand her interactivity with her peer group. No-one can deny that the lack of social mobility, fuelled by social poverty and thwarted aspirations, are important factors when we examine what is happening on the streets of 21st-century Britain.

The first thing that any society needs to heed is that young people have a right to be young. I, for one, am not sure that we do
accept this.

To be young, to enjoy the simple pleasures of what it is to be young,
is under attack. We expect our young to dress and behave like adults.
Our retail and publishing industry places enormous pressure on
young children to mimic adults. We are replacing the simple
pleasures of being young – play, fun, learning though activity – with the buy-it-now society.

We have muddled what we need with what we want, and in so doing we are muddled about what brings us happiness and fulfilment.

Young people have a divine right to be young, to have experiences which enable them to form their opinions and grow in a stable and happy way. If society does not cherish this right then, of course, we will create unhappy children who will become unhappy young adults.

What the debate needs to do is move to how we get young people to aspire to greater things by aspiring to be happy. Society needs to give them the tools to move beyond their own limitations, some of which are self-imposed, and some of which are set by social structures.

Often in our towns, villages and cities, we seem to have few facilities for young people. We need to take a bold approach and establish a partnership with community and think about how we can provide better services.

In the 1980s, we had youth clubs; before that, and still in some parts
of the UK, we had Brownies, Cubs and so forth. Today, young people have been privatised into their own worlds, and their own communication networks that wider society has not accepted or clearly understood. We mustn't try to take young people out of that – we must embrace it and place it within society's wider network of social provision.

Politicians must take the lead and fight for young people. Business and local communities can help: keeping buildings open late for young people to use; making available new resources that tie in with what young people want, late-night internet cafés, music facilities and sports venues to name a few. Young people interested in dance, fashion or science should be given the chance and space to use facilities post-school hours.

I accept that every generation has naughty and bad young people, and society will continue to argue about why that is. On the other hand, society demands responsibility, but with that comes the right of young people to be young.

We should move forward with a programme that allows them to be just that by opening up – and not closing down – our village halls, town and city centres to young people. Who wants to be on the streets in the rain when they can be at a sports venue, fashion design course, music studio, internet café or restaurant?

Its time to do right by our young, and they in turn will do right by society… now there's a social contract worth its weight in gold.


Annajoy Davis is a businesswoman and Labour's parliamentary candidate for Scarborough and Whitby.