We're Not All Hooligans

According to research carried out in the United Kingdom by Mori, a group commissioned by Young People Now magazine, there is an abundance of negative reporting on children's issues. They conducted research on 17 tabloid, broadsheet and local papers which ran a total of 603 "youth" related articles between August 2nd and 8th (2004) and found that negative articles "accounted for 71% of the total, with 14% positive and 15% neutral."

The following groups (The National Youth Agency, the Youth Justice Board, the Children's Society, the UK Youth Parliament, YMCA and Nacro) have supported Young People Now by drafting a media code as a way of addressing this issue.

One of the ways these groups seek to improve the portrayal of children in the media is to focus on balancing "the good with the bad" in news coverage. Research carried out by Mori found that young people were quoted in 8% of stories about themselves. The draft code seeks to reverse this by encouraging journalists to ask young people for their comments. The draft media code recommends that terms such as "yob, thug, monsters, evil and gang" be used more carefully.

According to The National Youth Agency's chief executive officer, Tom Wylie, "there are a certain proportion of heroes, and there are a certain proportion of villains, but most young people are ordinary."