Young people are often told, "Teenage years are the best years of your life so treasure them."

In many towns, happy groups of secondary and college students roam the streets, looking energetic and happy. However, this is only part of the picture. In Ireland, many problems with teenagers involve drugs, cigarettes and alcohol. Depression rates with teenagers have got higher and we cannot help but wonder what is happening to my generation of young people.

Life for many young people of this day and age involves a painful tug-of-war with mixed messages, questions that can't be answered and emotions and demands from parents and teachers. For young people, in this time in our lives involves leaving the sheltered and protected period of childhood life to become young adults. This period in life is filled with many problems such as struggling to find answers in life and how to fit themselves into the community and society.

Especially in young girls, weight or weight loss is a big problem. Girls that are bigger than other girls can get teased or even bullied because of their weight. Especially in secondary schools, weight is a large burden. Some girls may even take tablets or supplements to lose weight. In extreme cases girls can become anorexic or bulimic.

Cleo Rang 6, 2013

Problems Facing Young People These Days

We are living in a world where family life is very busy, with people under a lot of pressure due to the recession and where a lot of young people are raised outside their family home. We are being bought up in an age of gadgets, fast food, limited family time and access to complete strangers at a press of a button. It is no wonder that this has resulted in a lot of problems for young people today.

Some young have a lot of free time because both parents are working or too busy to spend time with them. The parents buy them expensive gadgets, such as phones, iPod, Wiis, playstations and computers to pass the time. Some recent research data from the US suggests that 95% of all teenagers aged between twelve and seventeen are now online and that 80% of them use social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. The dangers of these are cyberbullying, intimidation, harassment, being approached by online predators, who may try to coax them into a real life meeting and giving out personal information online and not knowing who can see it.

Another very real everyday problem is peer pressure. Young people cannot avoid peer pressure because young people need to be with their friends and they need the approval, companionship and acceptance that friend give. This may be fine if the friends are nice but, if you get stuck with bad company, it can have a terrible effect on a young person's behaviour. It can lead to all sort of difficulty such as drinking, stealing, taking drugs and doing badly in school.

Obesity is now the most common childhood disorder in Europe. 22% 5-12 are overweight or obese. This is caused by eating too much bad food, not getting enough exercise and some medical conditions. A lot of children don't have regular eating habits and snack all day. The opposite end of this, not eating enough, can be much worse problem. Lots of girls want to be super skinny like the models or actress they see on the TV or in magazines. This can lead to nearly starving themselves, vomiting up food or even smoking to stay thin.

There are many other problems facing young people but a kind, nurturing family environment goes a long way to either not letting these problems get too bad and help to solve them early if they do occur.

Isobel, Rang 6, 2013.

Problems Facing Young People Today!

Growing from a child to a young person to an adult is one of the most difficult in life. It should not came as a surprise that many people have problems during this time. Some of the difficulties that can face young people are eating disorders, bullying, cyberbullying, drugs and alcohol and depression. Most problems can be overcome with good communication and a lot of common sense. Some, however, may need support from services outside the family.

There are a lot of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa (where the person stops eating) or bulimia (where food is eaten but then deliberately vomited back up.)  Girls use these to stay skinny because they want to look like models, actresses or pop stars that they admire. There is also the problem of obesity where the person eats too much processed or fatty foods and are not getting enough exercise. This can lead to children or teenagers getting very heavy and also they can get medical problems e.g diabetes. It is important at this age that children get good advice, good food, plenty of exercise and that their parents are watchful that they are not eating too little or too much food.
  
Bullying is another serious problem facing young people. This can be physical (aggression & pushing), verbal (name calling, teasing, taunting or racist remarks) or psychological (exclusion, humiliation, isolation and threats). Bullying is always the same trying to get greater power over others. Bullying can also occur digitally or online and is called 'Cyberbullying’. This can be done through text messages, Facebook or Viber or other social networks. Again this is where someone is excluded, threatened or humiliated. Young people are encourage to talk about this problem to their parents, teachers, or other older persons they trust.

The last problem that I am going to write about is depression. This can be caused by the breakup of a friendship, the death or serious illness of someone in the family, stress and failure at school or bullying. This can lead to depression and sometimes even to suicide as what has happened to some girls recently as they were cyberbullied. If parents, teachers or friends think their friend/child is getting very quiet and spending a lot of time on their own they should try and find out if something is bothering them.

This poem might help with some of the problems.

If one day you feel like crying.
Call me…….
I don`t promise
That I will make u laugh
But I can cry with you.

If one day you want to run away.
Don’t be afraid to call me
I don’t promise …….
To ask you to stop
But I can run away with you.
  If one day you don’t want to listen
To anyone
Call me……….
I promise to be there for you.
And I promise to be very quiet.

But if one day you call me……
And there is no answer
Come fast to see me.
Perhaps I need you.

Ailís, Rang 6 2014

There are many problems facing young people today. This essay is about young people in Ireland aged between 12 and 17.  I think underage drinking of alcohol is one of the many problems. There is an awful lot of underage drinking in Ireland. One of the reasons is peer pressure; Young people are under pressure by their friends to drink. If they don’t they may lose their friends or be made to feel boring or cowardly.

Alcohol is also extremely unhealthy and dangerous. Alcohol blurs your judgement; it can make you do things that you wouldn’t otherwise do, which could cost you your life or the life’s of others. This is the most extreme consequence. Alcohol can also be very damaging to your health; it is very bad for your liver. Your liver has a very important function and is necessary for life. It is very hard to stop drinking alcohol because it is addictive-alcohol is a drug.

In fact drugs in general are a huge problem.
The more important thing is why people take drugs. It seems to be for all the same reasons people take alcohol. Many celebrities have died from an overdose of drugs such as Peaches Geldof and Whitney Housten.

Another problem is cyber bullying. On-line sites are a new and recent place for bullying to occur. People can also send threatening messages trough SMS or Email. Lots of young people ignore these and carry on with life but some will reply and get wrapped up in a series of threats and cruel nasty comments. The problem is Young people don’t want other people to know that they’re getting bullied sometimes for various reasons, so they keep it inside till they can’t handle it anymore and they sometimes commit suicide.

A big problem for young girls is anorexia or bulimia. Girls are under pressure to be slim and similar to a Barbie, like some people on television and magazines. Some girls even get teased about their weight.

Overall this is a very negative essay, but a lot of people are doing great and aren’t influenced by any of this.