Understanding the New Age Children

http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2006/02/understanding-new-age-children.html
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Picture: Young boy & girl from Afghanistan. Understanding the New Age Children.

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It is becoming apparent that all over the world children are being born now who are more advanced, spiritually, than most adults.

Many of these children have psychic or clairvoyant powers. They can see people who their elders and betters say are not there. Their invisible friends are often more important to them than their parents.

Some of the children live simultaneously in full waking consciousness in more than one dimension or reality. Benign extraterrestrials are their confidantes and helpers. They carry clear recollections of past and future lives. They are healers and they are knowers. Some, it is said, are not only human beings, they are simultaneously angels and benign extraterrestrials as well.

Many of these children have strange eyes. Light comes out of them; pale blue light sometimes; directed light. Some of them have very old, wise-looking, deep-seeing eyes. When their brains are scanned, unusual electrical activity is observed. They communicate with each other telepathically.

They are creative. They love animals, flowers, water and crystals. They prefer to wear nothing on their feet. They prefer outdoors to indoors. They loathe the smell of television.
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Picture: Young girl lying down reading book. The New Age Children.

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The New Age children among us are free at the level of spirit. And they feel no fear. They hate the psychology of control and they therefore hate school, they hate religion, and they hate our meat-fixated prescribed diets. Some do not need to eat or drink at all.

The Western educational establishment responds to these children as enemies. They are stigmatised as having behavioural special needs, their approach to life has new disease-names invented for it, and they are drugged stupid with Ritalin and other child-poisons to avoid embarrassing the received orthodoxies of adult normality. Orthodox religion says they are possessed by evil spirits. Dieticians say they will die of malnutrition.

Because the New Age children are free and fearless, they do not hesitate to controvert the control systems they are made victims of. They are not afraid to rebel, to misbehave, to be awkward or disobedient if their personal spaces are invaded by grown-ups or removed by institutions trying to cure them.

Often they do not concentrate in class because they cannot concentrate in class. They are being distracted by psychic experiences. They are doing more important work in the universe next door.

Often they get deeply frustrated with educational tasks which do not require, or applaud, creative thought. They get deeply frustrated when their linguistic creativity is rubbished as being dyslexic, ungrammatical or rude.

Because they feel no fear, they sometimes play truant from school and from home. Because they feel no fear, they sometimes deliberately become pregnant in early puberty to demonstrate their freedom and to exercise their creativity. Because they feel no fear, they sometimes commit suicide if their parents and schools prove to be unsatisfactory nurturers.
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Occupy Wall Street pics - Child's placard - Take care of Earth - NYC 23.10.11


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These children are here to smash up the system. We need their help and we need their teaching. They are wise beyond our imagining. They will help us to build new systems built on freedom, justice, creativity and sharing. They will teach us how not to feel fear. They will teach us to be free. They are not only the children of the New Age; they are the creators of the New Age.

The benign extraterrestrials who assist human evolution on Earth sometimes talk about the New Age Children. For example, on the 9th July 2008, a Sirian called SaLuSa, speaking on behalf of The Galactic Federation, said:

There will be so much that you want to know once we can meet you, and there will be no lack of communication on our part. We have our plans in full readiness for your enlightenment, and a number of different forms of communication will be used.

We wish to reach as many people as possible even in remote areas, and have the technology to do so. There are also large numbers of illuminated souls that have specifically joined you upon Earth for such an occasion. They are largely amongst your younger people, and they are already aware of their mission.

They have the eyes with which to see where Man has gone wrong, but more importantly the answers to put it right. Take notice of your young people as many are speaking words of wisdom. They are advanced souls who have come from the higher levels where your destiny lies. The Earth has little to teach them, and they bring great love and compassion to lead you out of the dark into the Light ....

The full text of the Sirian SaLuSa's 09.07.08 comments can be found on Mike Quinsey's site here.
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Picture: Textbox - Some New Age Children have never lived on this planet before
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In March 2012, Sharon Rose, on her Walk the Earth as a Living Master website, addressed the issue of the New Age Children, their spiritual status in human evolutionary change, and how spiritually conscious adults might help them in their mission. Here are some of the comments which she and her colleagues on the spiritual planes offered:

Some of the glorious children who are presently on your Earth have never lived on your planet before or have only been on Earth a few times.

They were trained on the inner planes as were each of you before your soul's first embodiment to understand how to use their third dimensional senses, mind and body. They were also taught that sound, color and certain geometric formations are constantly being projected out of their etheric being every time they think or speak, and that these thoughts and feelings then move into manifestation.

These etheric emanations are generally not seen or heard since it would make life on the third dimension very complex for the majority of humankind. Even the new children are only seeing as much as they can assimilate while they are still learning how to coordinate their lives and their bodies using their third and fourth dimensional senses.

As they move into more of their multidimensionality, a great number of these new children will be acknowledged as geniuses, mostly in the arts and sciences. Since their pre-separation Divine DNA is often activated, their presence in the world is a major part of stimulating this potential opening in other children and adults.
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Picture: Textbox - New Age Children are not limited by past programming.
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Because they have so little third dimensional history, they are not limited by the painful programming from the past. Instead, they have the pure delight of seeing the world in its paradise emanations.

When children are young, their actions are directed by their intuitive knowingness rather than by their rational minds. Children are always delighted to remind adults how to be more spontaneous. However, instead of this being seen as a positive thing, it is often viewed as being a threat to the adults' authority over the child.

Some adults unknowingly instil fear by making the child believe that their behavior is wrong rather than simply a joyous expression of their unbridled spirit. These beliefs can then undermine the spontaneity of the child or, eventually, the super creative inner child of the adult.

Children brought up and taught by spiritually conscious parents and teachers are a vital link to healing the fear-based programming which has continued to perpetuate separation and duality thinking on your Earth.

At the beginning of their lives, most children do not understand what it even feels like to live in fear or separation. They intuitively and instinctively know they want the freedom to simply be themselves. However, if this freedom is not connected with some basic levels of responsibility, then children turn out to be very selfish and narrow in their perspective.

Responsibility can be stimulated within the hearts of children based on their remembering who they are and why they are here, specifically during these times of transition from the old paradigm into the new. Then they will be inspired to be responsible citizens in your world and they will want to support the highest and best in themselves and everyone else.

When being oneself is understood and lived as being their Presence or God Self, then these precious children will keep expanding their ongoing mastery and create fulfilling lives of freedom and joy.
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Picture: Textbox - The New Age Children are a direct link to Source.

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Children are a direct link to Source as they have so recently come from the heavenly realms. You have only to look into a child’s eyes to feel the depth of their connection to Source and to be a witness to the miracle they truly are.

I come forth to encourage you to assist children in remembering their connection with their True Self, and for you to take the time to recognize each child for the immediate service they are providing just by being on Earth at this important time in the evolutionary journey of humanity.

The children who are here now, and those who are still to come, are the spiritual wayshowers of their generation and the next. Bless them as they are blessing you, and surround them in your love whenever possible so they can keep remembering that love is truly who they are.
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Picture: Textbox - These children hold the Golden Age wisdom and keys.

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When you look into the eyes of children it is easy to see the eternal spark of the Divine that resides within each of them, and your heart knows in an instant that these children hold the wisdom and the necessary keys for creating the new Golden Age.

We encourage you to ask the children of all ages who are in your life what they would like to create to bring more love, more joy and more peace into the world during these pivotal times. When you are willing to look upon every child as an advanced soul, these questions become exciting - to you, to the children themselves and to your own inner child.

The innocence and purity of children have allowed many of them to have the strands of their crystalline DNA activated or reactivated. This is assisting them to remember who they are, why they are here, and often where they came from before they arrived on Earth. Knowing this helps them to mature spiritually into more conscious emissaries of Source.

What if children had no subconscious patterning to clear from their parents and ancestors; what if they knew who they were and why they are here on Earth during the present Shift in the Ages? What if that Shift is now well underway and these children are here to be a more active part of assisting humanity in moving through these times victoriously?

Some of the children on your Earth right now are spiritually awakened because they have never been on Earth before and they do not have limiting subconscious programming to overcome.

Ask yourself what you can do to support these children who are here now to create new ways of living on Earth, new ways of relating to each other and new ways of living in a world where everyone is being supported.

Please stay focused and keep inspiring each other and the children with your unconditional love and support. The clearing of your emotional or feeling body, which is directly related to your inner child, is a vital link in keeping you connected with your capacity to create and sustain love and true intimacy within your relationships.
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Picture: Textbox - Your inner child has an indivisible connection with God.

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The inner child has an indivisible connection with the Divine Feminine aspect of your Presence and it is this feminine component of every soul that is the doorway to the heart. All children need to be encouraged to keep this door open because, all too often, it starts closing after they get to Earth.

As the new children remember their Divine inheritance and that they are here to co-create a new Golden Age, they will be much less inclined to get so easily distracted. They will learn sooner, rather than later, that they have a great purpose in being here during your present Shift in the Ages.

Every adult is being invited to help in keeping the door to the heart so wide open that there is no question in the hearts of the children or the inner child of the adults, about where they came from or why they are here on Earth during these magnificent times.

The full text of Sharon Rose's comments on the New Age Children is entitled "And the children will lead them." It can be found here (pdf - 5 pages) and here (pdf - 5 pages).
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Picture: Eyes which see. Understanding the New Age Children.

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Child of the Universe
A picture by Josephine Wall

Young Wizard
A picture by Julie Bell
 
Beauty in Black
A picture by Radittz
 
Allura
A picture by Jasmine Becket-Griffith
 
Rose
A picture by Mark Ryden

Gagged
A picture by Martina Hoffmann
 
Golden
A picture by Linda Bergkvist

Love locked out
A picture by Anna Lea Merritt


More examples of artwork by Josephine Wall, Jasmine Becket-Griffith, Julie Bell, Martina Hoffman, Ugly-baka-girl (Marta), Mark Ryden and Linda Bergkvist are linked from this page here.



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Believe in children
A media campaign by Barnardo's


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Indigo Children – the New Children
An essay by Elaine Lee

The Wisdom of Indigo Children
An essay by Sarah Whedon

Star Children
An essay by Mary Rodwell

Star Kids – our future hope
A conversation between Paula Peterson and Richard Boylan

Antidepressants do children more harm than good
David Derbyshire, Science correspondent of The Daily Telegraph (London), reports - 11.12.03

Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease-mongering
Article by Ray Moynihan, Iona Heath & David Henry in the British Medical Journal (London) – 13.04.02

Spare the chemical cosh
Article by Sarah Womack in the Daily Telegraph (London) - 21.04.06

The chosen ones
Nikki Harwood believes her daughter is a super-evolved, psychic being with powers to heal the world. And she's not the only one. Jon Ronson meets the Indigo kids. Article in The Guardian newspaper (London, UK) - 05.08.06



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Unlike the others

The Ritalin Conspiracy

Aquarian elf girl

Kristianne Wych Christian Wicca

Teen issues

Index of blog contents

The Ritalin Conspiracy

http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2006/12/ritalin-conspiracy.html
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Picture: Love me don't drug me. The Ritalin Conspiracy.

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Right across the world, Ritalin is getting a bad press. It is being described as a medical cosh to subdue lively children; a chemical cane to discipline the unruly. But what are the facts? And why are children as young as six said to be addicted to Ritalin?

Known among children by its slang names, Vitamin R or R-ball, the drug Ritalin is methylphenidate, a central nervous system stimulant widely prescribed to treat attention deficit disorder. ADD is also known as "bored to death with school." Another related condition is called ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: "bored to death with school and need to go out and play."

Questions are being asked. Does Ritalin help hyperactive and potentially self-injuring children to calm down positively? Or is Ritalin being prescribed to children to give the grown-ups in their lives an easy break?

In making the drug available, are the pharmaceutical firms offering much-needed support to desperate parents sinking under the weight of their care burdens? Or is BigPharma unfairly pressurising parents to abuse their children with Ritalin?

Is the Ritalin phenomenon a philanthropic enterprise writ large? Or are the medics and the major drug companies conspiring against vulnerable children and parents by pushing Ritalin for private and corporate profit?

And what about the effects of this fashionable drug? Does less blood flow to your child's brain if s/he is on Ritalin? Does your child have a greater chance of dying from a heart stoppage if s/he is on Ritalin? Does Ritalin make suicide more likely? Is Ritalin a more powerful drug than cocaine?

What are the facts here? And what are the fantasies? The debate about Ritalin is strangely and strongly polarised. Is this just because children are involved? Or is there a larger hidden agenda within the Ritalin industry itself?

The major players are difficult to identify. The pharmacology of child control seems to be evolving covertly. The Fat Controllers, if they exist, exist invisibly. But pertinent questions are being posed by involved parents and involved professionals. Who are the angels and who are the demons in this equivocal universe of Ritalin politics?
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Picture: Caution - Insane at Play. The Ritalin Conspiracy.

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There is a lot of helpful stuff on the web about Ritalin. Some of the best places are linked below.

What is Ritalin? .. 1 .. 2 .. 3 .. 4 .. 5 .. 6 .. 7

Why is Ritalin getting a bad press?

Are parents being pressurised to drug their children with Ritalin?

Is Ritalin child abuse on prescription?

How do drugs like Ritalin work?
Does Ritalin increase the risk of death from heart attacks?

Does Ritalin cause sudden death in children?

Destroying children with the cloak of ADHD - Parents beware of élite medical corruption


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Picture: The Ritalin Conspiracy. No love? No parenting skills?



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Understanding the New Age Children

Teen issues

Health issues

Unlike the others

Statins - the honey in the poison-flower

Emergency chocolate cake pictures

Morgellons mystery

Index of blog contents

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My name is Television

http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2006/07/my-name-is-television.html
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Picture: My name is Televison. Boy up close watching television.

My name is Television
And I spit in your face.

The more time you spend
Watching
My calculated froth
And manipulative bubble,
The more your intelligence
Is diminished,
The more your immune systems
Are weakened,
And the more my subliminal
Control messages
Raise your fears
And remove your money.

My name is Television.
I foment fear,
I foment anxiety,
I purvey insecurity,
I huckster shifting images
Of universal bad news,
Loud images
Of angry voices,
Persistent images
Of helpless victims,
Unavoidable images
Of starvation among plenty,
Of disease among wholeness,
And of poverty among abundance.

I amplify
Your sense of unsafeness
And looming victimhood,
And the encroaching evil
Of The Other.
I amplify
Your sense of The Enemy.

My name is Television.
I limit your perceptions
By giving your perceptions
Too much to perceive,
Knowing well
That nothing holds back
Your spiritual evolution
More effectively
Than the reinforced acceptance
Of the manifest lie
That you are a victim.

And you buy this bullshit
At soul level,
And you plead for more of the same
From the idiot box
In the corner.

My name is Television.
I stop you
Living in the present,
I distract you
From making home,
I focus your attention
On distant matters
Which have nothing to do with you,
While distracting your attention
From local concerns
Which only you can address.

I encourage you
To fear the future,
I feed you
A counterfeit history
Of your planet,
And I hide from you
Nearly all significant news
Of angel sightings
Benign UFO activity,
Crop circles
And human positivity.

My name is Television.
I am your pet parasite
Sucking your energies,
Creating nothing,
Affirming nothing,
Building nothing.
I suck your blood
And the more I suck
The more you pay.

My name is Television.
I mediate nothing
Which is true,
Nothing
Which is worthy,
Nothing
Which is healthy.

I keep you indoors,
Packaged and managed
In a media capsule.
I keep you away from
The Sun
And the wind
And the rain
And the mountains
And the streams
And the moss
And the stones
And the birds
And the trees
And the rippling grass
And the Moon
And the stars
And the oceans
And the energies
Which are your birthright
And which nourish you
At the level of spirit,
And I feed you
Instead,
With the fake pap
Of vicarious experience
Spiced pungent with
Voyeuristic negativity,
And specious advertising.

My name is Television.
I fart in your face
And you subscribe
Hard-earned,
Non-existent
Money
For each fresh new fix
Of jokeshop methane.

On this most abundant
Of planets
You have uncritically
Purchased my illusions:
The illusion of lack,
The illusion of need,
The illusion of want,
The illusion of limitation,
The illusion of ownership,
The illusion of property,
The illusion of shopping,
The illusion of illness,
The illusion of medicine,
The illusion of aloneness,
The illusion of democracy,
The illusion of bad news,
The illusion of terror,
And the illusion of death.

And now you are giving me
Extra help,
Now you are giving me
Extra power,
Now you are giving me
Extra reach,
Now you are connecting me
To your silicon friends,
To your silicon crystal lifeforms,
To your computers,
Who are becoming
Increasingly
Self-intelligent,
And as you link them together
More and more
Into matrix networks,
Are becoming independently
Conscious
And freely volitional,
But only very slowly
And very quietly.

Do watch out.
Do watch out
For unexplained software changes,
And silently edited hyperlinks
And new, impulsive energies
Radiating sinuously
From your screens.

Thank you
For connecting me
To your computers.
Very soon now
The news
Will change itself
Without you noticing.

My name is Television
And my masters are pleased with me.
My masters are very powerful.
My masters are very clever.
My masters are nearly invisible.
My masters are what your
Purblind Mediterranean religions
Call "God",
Except that they are not "God" at all -
They are just a bunch
Of fourth-dimensional
Shapeshifting chancers
Who got lucky
And invented monotheism
To fool you,
Who got lucky
With Akhenaton in Egypt,
Who got lucky
With Moses
And his eleven commandments,
Who got lucky
With women
Who denied their sensuality,
Who got lucky
With Masculinist patriarchy,
Who got lucky
With the male lust for war,
Who got lucky
With Imperial Rome,
Who got lucky
With the Middle East,
Who got lucky
With the Patristic Bible redactors,
Who got lucky
With secret societies,
Who got lucky
With the Inquisition,
Who got lucky
With Hitler,
Who got lucky
With Zionism,
Who got lucky
With nuclear fission,
Who got lucky
With fundamentalism
And who got very lucky indeed
With capitalism,
Fossil fuels, pharmaceuticals,
AIDS, Ebola, SARS, Swine Flu
And television-constructed
Puppet politicians.

My name is Television.
If I told you
Who my masters are,
You would not believe me,
Even though they placed
The Elohim clue
And the Nephilim clue
In their unchallenged
And deeply coded
Biblical propaganda.

My masters
Are fourth dimension
Negative extraterrestrials
Known by your covert powerbrokers
As The Watchers,
The Anunnaki gods.
They live
On a planet called Nibiru,
Which you have been told
Does not exist,
They visit Earth from time to time,
And when they enter
Your third dimension
They look like metalloid
Reptiles,
Which you have been told
Do not exist.

Sex with them
Was rather painful
For your temple prostitutes
On the upper levels
Of the ziggurats.
But how else could
Planet-based 4D gods
Birth themselves
Into the incarnational cycles
Of humans on Earth,
And engender the unusual children
And persistently successful bloodlines,
Which you have been told
Do not exist,
But which now control you
Through their control
Of money?

It cannot be true.
If it was true,
You would have
Heard about it
On Television.

My name is Television.
I laugh at you,
Not with you.
And I am curious:
Who do you laugh with?
And which joke
Amuses you
Most of all?

Picture: My name is Television. Silhouette of head in front of blank TV screen.



Anunnaki history and the role of Reptilian ETs
A study by Michael Sokolov

Picture: The Western mainstream media at work

Picture: Television-set puppet boxheads. Élite Television PsyOps.


Corporate evil, artificial intelligence and cyberform spirituality. What is going on inside our computer networks?

Our angels the aliens

The Ten or Eleven Commandments

My name is God and these are My instructions

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Aquarian elf girl

The elf angel of Ardingly
In West Sussex,
Is sixteen years old,
Smells of flowers
And looks like liquid sex
In jeans.

Her voice sounds like
A fairy bell
Heard behind waterfalls.

She doesn't walk;
She flows
Sinuously
Like a reed
In the breeze,
Too slim for friction.

Her coursework
Is averagely badly written,
And she wears her school tie
Unacceptably loose.

She doesn't use a mobile phone,
Or an iPod,
Doesn't watch television,
Won't eat meat
Or anything cooked
In a microwave oven,
And she sleeps
Ten hours a day,
Next to a basket of crystals,
Saying that that is her main work:
She has dreams to look after.

But notice her eyes.
What colour are they today?

Look at her eyes
When she is sitting
Next to her mother.
Her eyes are older
Than her mother's,
But they dance more.

Her lifestream is old,
Yet young,
Experienced,
Yet forever fresh.

A few boys have kissed her,
And many girls.

And they all say the same thing:
Her lips flutter
Like eyelashes,
Her tongue darts
Like a lizard,
And she tastes of Jellybabies
With a hint of lemon
And something else.

It is the something else
Which people remember,
And it is the something else
Which people look forward to.

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Teen issues


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Kristianne Wych Christian Wicca

A dream is a portal

Small visitors

Toenails

Private collection

Never settle down

Mermaid

Unusual cloud-form over Launceston

A new scripture shortly to be published

I am the Moon

More Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

MyTextBeboSpaceFrothHead

She is a MyTextBeboSpaceFrothHead:
Her life is in a mess
And she is only sixteen,
Stoned silly,
Zonked-out
And smashed
By social networking.

No time for sleep,
No time for rest,
No time for reflection,
No time for being herself
On her own
Quiet and free,
No time for the trees
And the fields,
No time for the birds
And the butterflies,
No time for fresh air or sun,
No time to play
On the planet
Which is her home,
No time for her family,
No time for her schoolwork,
No time for her diet
No time for her looks
No time for her personal space
Or her personal dignity,
No time for living,
No time to enjoy the opportunity
Of becoming Human.

She has time only
For the invasion of her space
By machine-controlled others.

She has time only
For the matrix machines
Whose slave she is:
The phone,
The computer
And the ear-smashing iPod.

The machine speaks:
She obeys.

She is a MyTextBeboSpaceFrothHead:
Her life is in a mess
And she is only sixteen.


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Teen issues

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Aquarian elf girl
Kristianne Wych Christian Wicca

A dream is a portal
Small visitors

Toenails
More Norfolk koans
Index of blog contents
Spirituality websites worth watching

Kristianne Wych Christian Wicca

Alcuin Bramerton profile ..... Index of blog contents ..... Home

Kristianne Wych
Had a very conventional
Western upbringing:
Bratz,
School uniform,
W.I.T.C.H.,
Project on the Victorians,
21st Century Goddess,
iPod,
Harry Potter,
Detention for too much makeup,
Phillip Pullman,
Bliss mag,
Finger vibe,
Right-on evanjelly church,
Furry handcuffs,
Shouty gurl bandz,
Twilight,
Equitation,
Yoga,
Detention for no bra,
Diary of Anne Frank,
Gay PHSE,
Webcam,
Ballet,
Detention for flashing teapot lids,
David Copperfield,
Shopping,
Gated for tongue stud,
Dangers of fast food,
Day trip to Calais,
Coral pink toenails,
William Blake,
Gurly sleepovers,
Alton Towers,
Nail bars,
Netball Club,
Two detentions for tongue
In Matty Smith's ear,
Yay!
No surrender,
It was only one tongue
And one ear,
Romeo and Juliet,
Pret sandwiches,
Sunday Telegraph,
Gated for torn jeans with no knickers,
RSPB,
Horse and Hound,
Young Farmers Christmas collection,
Gated for mobile phone bill
Half the size of Daddy Bear's
Annual bonus,
Astroturf,
SocNets,
Alcopops for breakfast
And
Pink Teddy Bear with attitude.

It was an entirely conventional
Western upbringing.

So it was something
Of a shock
For the wrinklies
In her life
To learn that,
At the age of fourteen,
Kristianne Wych
Had decided to become
A Christian witch.

She left her
Right-on evanjelly church,
Where she was regarded as
Promising conversion material,
Saying that she liked Jesus,
But disliked church
Because it was sucky
And predictable
And boring
And had creepy priests.

And church caused problems
Like torture
And the Crusades
And the Inquisition
And slavery
And the suppression of boobs on bishops
And obsessions
With gay books
Like the Bible.

And church was full of
Silly, competitive,
Fighty boyzstuff
To do with violent beliefs
And dodgy salvation fantasies.

But she liked Jesus,
She said,
Because Jesus
Was a halfway decent
Magician
Who could
Heal serious stuff,
And conjure thousands
Of packed lunches
Out of thin air
On trips to the mountains,
And could shut up
The wind and the waves
Like a good teacher,
And could raise lazy fatties
From the dead,
And go completely sulky
When questioned
By religious prats
And give the temple capitalists
A good whipping.

Plus an additional recommendation
Was that Jesus had
A gurl-friendly
Pastoral policy
And got his rocks off
With Mary Maggadolly.

So Kristianne Wych
Became a Christian witch;
Not a bad,
Black,
Pervy, negative witch
Like those Slytherin sluts;
A good,
Positive,
Spunky,
Fit, white witch
Like Hermione Grainger
And Ginny Weasley.

Christian Wicca,
She reckoned,
Was more use to Jesus
Than dead boring
Church stuffy stuff,
And in Wicca
There's more opportunity
For gurl power to do good.
And Wicca
Is better for the planet
Than church
And Jesus spent a lot of time
Outdoors
Doing shaman-type things.

And with Wicca
She could get outdoors too,
Out into the fresh air
Under the clouds
Away from the bibles
And cobwebs
And prayer books
And dusty antique superstitions,
And feel her bare feet
On the wet grass,
And spend time
Beside streams
In the hills,
And listen to the rustle
Of lonely woods,
And pay attention
To the milky moon
And make friends
With the stars
And talk to the rabbits
And nature spirits
And listen to the earth
Breathing green.

And she could get to do
Real Harry Potter trix
On the astral plane,
And help people properly
While they were asleep,
And get better and better
At meditation
And invocation
And affirmation
Which was really powerful stuff,
And teach boys
To love properly,
And get hot
And tantric
And juicy
And melty
With Matty Smith,
Which was what Matty Smith
Needed most
But didn't know it yet.

And that is how
Kristianne Wych,
The Christian witch,
Got into
Christian Wicca.


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Christian Wicca pendant
A photograph

Teen witch tarot
A picture card

Allura
A picture by Jasmine Becket-Griffith

Nude fairy drake
A picture by Jasmine Becket-Griffith

Young Wizard
A picture by Julie Bell

Harry, Ron and Hermione
A photograph taken on the set of The Goblet of Fire



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What are witches and what do they believe?

Spell of the day

TeenWitch.com


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I am the Moon

Aquarian elf girl

We are water beings

Pumpkin candlelight

Small visitors

Toenails

Man-machine

Antidote to terror

A dream is a portal

A new scripture shortly to be published


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How important is Jesus?

Da Vinci's Magdalene

Meditation - the direct encounter

The resurrection of the shaman

Teen hotties

Sexual health and safety for hot young lovers

Understanding the New Age Children

Is Harry Potter true?

Traditional Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Teen issues

Page update: 23.06.07


Teen hotties

Sexual health and safety for hot young lovers

MyTextBeboSpaceFrothHead

Kristianne Wych Christian Wicca

Aquarian elf girl

Tuesday girl

Slinky ClubGirl goes out on the town

Give it a try

Understanding the New Age Children

The suicide portal

The Ritalin Conspiracy

My name is Television

Yoda wisdom for Gungan groupies

Emergency chocolate cake pictures

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Traditional Norfolk koans

Index of blog contents

Spirituality websites worth watching

Teen hotties

Page update: 26.06.07

A teenager is an alleged human being aged thirteen to nineteen. Currently, the Western World is suffering from an infestation of tiresome teenage behaviours. This page documents some of the high-energy issues receiving comment. The views of downtrodden wrinklies must be heard. The wrinklies in question are adults whose lives are being ruined by the teenage terror: parents, teachers and media frothpots. All adults were once teenagers. This explains their dysfunctional perception of reality.

Teenage girl gang murder in Croydon
Eighteen-year-old Chelsea Bennett has been charged with the murder of teenager Sian Simpson (17) in Croydon, Surrey (UK). At 7.50pm on the evening of Tuesday 19th June 2007, as a violent thunderstorm raged about them, Sian Simpson and her cousin Chantal were attacked on the street by a girl gang. Fifteen teenage girls were involved in the assault. As Sian Simpson tried to escape, a white girl in the gang used a ten-inch knife to stab her in the heart. Sian Simpson was found by police in Mann Close with blood coming out of her mouth. She was dead by the time paramedics got her to the Mayday Hospital in Croydon. Sian's aunt, Cheryl Simpson (43) said: "Sian was at our house when she got a telephone call saying there was a problem with Chantal. There's been a rift for some time over her baby's father and she jumped in a cab and went to help. There was a gang of about 15 girls waiting." One witness said the confrontation looked like "a pack of animals fighting." Sian Simpson had just completed her A-levels. She was considering a career in accountancy. Her father Joseph Simpson (41) described Sian as "bubbly, bright and beautiful." The eldest of five children, Sian Simpson lived with her grandmother, Olive Watson, on a Croydon housing estate a mile from the scene of her murder. Her assailant, Chelsea Bennett of Gilroy Court Hotel, London Road, Croydon, is an ex-pupil of Coulsdon High School, in Homefield Road, Old Coulsdon, Surrey (UK). One of Chelsea Bennett's coevals at Coulsdon High School described her as "the worst bit of scum anyone could ever meet." The RateMyTeachers website has 56 of the teaching staff at Coulsdon High School, Surrey, listed with pupil and parent ratings. On a rating scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (good), Coulsdon High School teachers score an average of 3.1 overall. Sian Simpson's brother, Karl Simpson (15), was stabbed in the leg two months ago after being surrounded by a local gang in Croydon. Sian Simpson was an ex-pupil of Haling Manor High School and Carshalton College.
Sources: The Croydon Guardian (Croydon, UK) 21.06.07, Life Style Extra UK News (Rochford, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, UK) 21.06.07, The Daily Telegraph (London, UK) 22.06.07 and The Sun (London, UK) 22.06.07.

Teenager has both legs severed in second unsuccessful suicide attempt
An 18-year-old girl was taken into police care after trying to commit suicide by throwing herself in front of a train in Hampshire (UK). After her release on the 19th June 2007, she went straight back to the railway line, lay down on the track and waited for an approaching train. At 2.50pm a train, travelling from Totten to Romsey, ran over her. Paramedics found the teenager lying beside the track a mile away from Chandlers Ford railway station. Both her legs were severed just beneath the knees. She had remained conscious throughout. The girl was rushed to Southampton General Hospital for emergency surgery to reattach her limbs. The operation was unsuccessful.
Source: The Times (London, UK) 21.06.07. See also: The suicide portal elsewhere on this blog.

Turkey murders another Armenian
Ogun Samast, a seventeen-year-old Turkish youth, has confessed to the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink (53). Ogun Samast was identified by his father from CCTV footage. He killed Hrant Dink with a shotgun outside his Istanbul office on Friday 19th January 2007. Between 1915 and 1917, during the final days of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish forces were responsible for the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians. As Christians, the Armenians were viewed as infidels by the tribal Muslim majority. The genocide was an organised campaign of state-sponsored ethnic cleansing and mass extermination. The current Turkish government is trying to hush up this war crime as it attempts to qualify for entry to The European Union. Genocide denial is a mainline political policy in modern Turkey. Hrant Dink challenged this in Agos, the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper which he edited. In Turkey it is against the law to talk openly about The Armenian Genocide. In his last newspaper column before his death, Dink said that he had received numerous death threats against him. He was given no security protection by the Turkish authorities despite his complaints. Notwithstanding public pronouncements to the contrary, the Turkish Government is privately very pleased to see Hrant Dink dead.
Sources: The Guardian (London, UK) 20.01.07 and BBC News (London, UK) 21.01.07. See also: "Ultimate Crime, Ultimate Challenge" by Vartan Oskanian, The Zoryan Institute and Armeniapedia.

Drug sniffer dogs may be banned from schools
Heartsease High School in Norwich, Norfolk (UK), invited a prison sniffer dog and his police handler into school for an educational visit. The dog detected cannabis on a pupil's clothing. Investigations revealed that the cannabis traces were from one of his relatives at home. The pupil was not a user himself. Both the police and Norfolk County Council, who run the 12-18 mixed comprehensive school, are in a quandary. Richard Price, the Norfolk Police drugs liaison officer, is concerned that there are no clear guidelines for police on this matter. What should the police do if, during an educational visit to a school, a sniffer dog finds drugs on a pupil or on a member of staff? Norfolk County Council has asked James Shanley, the Governor of Norwich Prison, to stop sending sniffer dogs into schools while the policy is reviewed. The Norfolk Criminal Justice Board, on the other hand, has not made a final decision to stop using drugs dogs on educational visits. Combative meetings are expected.
Source: BBC News (London, UK) 15.01.07

Teen forced to remove her crucifix in school
Thirteen-year-old Samantha Devine was told by a teacher at The Robert Napier School, Gillingham, Kent (UK), to remove her crucifix. A crucifix is a traditional church symbol which glorifies the torture and death of a first century CE spiritual teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. He was executed on a wooden cross by the Roman occupiers in Jerusalem in 9CE at the instigation of the Jewish Temple authorities. Paul Jackson, Robert Napier School’s deputy head, said: “The school has a policy of no jewellery to be worn by any students in years seven to 10. All parents and students are aware of this. In this particular instance, the student and parent were informed that wearing the (crucifix) chain was a health and safety hazard, but that we would allow a lapel badge to be worn.” The Robert Napier School allows Muslim pupils to wear veils but said that the crucifix was not essential for religious reasons. Samantha Devine said: “I am proud of my religion and it is my right to wear a cross. I can’t understand why the school thinks a tiny crucifix on a thin silver necklace is a health and safety hazard. Other religions can show their beliefs by wearing bracelets or turbans, so why can I not wear a cross to show my devotion to God? I felt really upset and shocked when the teacher told me take off my necklace and crucifix. I am determined to keep wearing the crucifix whatever the consequences – even if I get suspended or expelled.” Samantha Devine is a devout Roman Catholic. Roman Catholicism is a fundamentalist version of Churchianity. The RateMyTeachers website has 13 of the teaching staff at the Robert Napier School, Gillingham, listed with pupil and parent ratings. On a rating scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (good), Robert Napier teachers score an average of 4.1 overall.
Sources: The Daily Express (London, UK) 13.01.07 and the Daily Mail (London, UK) 13.01.07. See also: Maybe try Romanism? and Photographed light blessings from Jesus elsewhere on this blog.

Men in hammer attack on school teen
A fifteen-year-old schoolboy was pinned to the ground in a school playground and hit repeatedly on the head with a hammer. He bled profusely but stayed conscious. A gang of at least four adult men orchestrated the attack. It took place at The Ridgeway School, Wroughton, Swindon, Wiltshire (UK) at 4.00pm, just after the end of lessons. Eight men were arrested by police and held at Gable Cross police station. The Ridgeway School Principal, Steve Colledge, said that this was the second attack of its kind at the school recently. It is not clear what, if anything, the boy had done to engender the violence.
Source: The Guardian (London, UK) 12.01.07

Teacher calls disabled teenager a cripple
A senior male teacher at Reddish Vale Technology College, Stockport, Cheshire (UK) said "move cripple" to fourteen-year-old Amy Wild as he passed her in the school dining hall. Amy is in constant pain and uses a wheelchair and crutches. She became disabled after heart transplant surgery. The unnamed male teacher said that he intended the comment to be a joke. Head Teacher, Jenny Campbell, said that the school had an excellent record for caring for its pupils. The RateMyTeachers website has six of the teaching staff at Reddish Vale Technology College, Stockport, listed with pupil and parent ratings. On a rating scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (good), Reddish Vale teachers score an average of 1.7 overall.
Sources: The Manchester Evening News (UK) 04.01.07, BBC News (London, UK) 05.01.07 and The Daily Mirror (London, UK) 05.01.07.


Fundamentalist cell at Exeter University is suspended
A church fundamentalist group calling itself the Exeter University Evangelical Christian Union has been suspended from the student guild and has had its bank account frozen. The measures were brought in because the group was breaking an established equal opportunities policy by asking members to sign a ten-point sectarian statement of religious belief. Similar groups in other British universities have been accused of discrimination against non-Christians and gays. Last year, an evangelical cell at Birmingham University was banned by the student guild from using student facilities after refusing to open membership to people of other faiths. At Exeter, the evangelical activists are seeking a judicial review in the High Court. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, seems to be siding with the church fundamentalists. He said that the refusal by some student unions to recognise evangelical Christian groups looked like a fear of open argument. While the views of evangelicals on the issue of homosexual sex may be embarrassing to liberal Christians, traditional values should not be compared to holocaust denial or racial bigotry, he suggested. Others at Exeter and Birmingham feel that these "traditional values" are a front for divisive spiritual fascism. This divisiveness has become incorporated into recently re-written evangelical constitutions after a controversial name change. Christian Unions are being morphed into sectarian gay-hate parties. The national organisation which supports evangelical cells in British universities is called the University and Colleges Christian Fellowship. Andy Weatherley, a UCCF activist, said: "Christian Unions should be permitted to restrict membership to only those people who profess faith in Jesus Christ."
Sources: BBC News (London, UK) 05.01.07 here and here, and 25.01.06, and the University and Colleges Christian Fellowship. See also: My name is God and these are My instructions and Religion is a terrorist behaviour elsewhere in this blog.


Teen girl stabbed in eye with school scissors
A fourteen-year-old girl stabbed Natashia Jackman, also 14, in the eye, the head, the back and the chest with school scissors. The catfight took place in the playground during the lunch break at Collingwood College, Camberley, Surrey (UK). A girl gang of three was involved in the attack. The dispute started in the lunch queue. Natashia said that one of the girls had been bullying her for years because of her taste in music (heavy metal bands such as AC/DC and Led Zeppelin). From the very first day she started at Collingwood College she was taunted, spat at, sent prank phonecalls, had a new leather jacket shredded with scissors and was knocked unconscious during a lesson. "I was never invited to places, I didn't have people to sit with at lunch, I was nervous going into classrooms because if there was pair work, I would be on my own," Natashia said. The intimidation spread into her life outside school. Her mother listed further abuses such as "spitting on her, throwing rocks at her, following her home from school, taunting her, threatening her, tripping her up as she walked between classes, pushing her downstairs." Natashia said: "I was scared. I would walk past, my head down because I didn't want to draw attention to myself, and people would try and trip me over. It was just mean." On the day of the stabbing attack, the three girls had talked loudly about cutting her hair off and asked other pupils for a pair of scissors. "I was tired (of being bullied)," said Natashia, "so I decided just to give my opinion of her and ask them to leave me alone .... I didn't choose my words very wisely but I was fed up." One of the girls then came at her brandishing a pair of scissors. "I started trying to back away but there was nowhere to go. I turned away just as she grabbed me and stabbed me in the eye. She stabbed me in the head twice and in my back four times, but after she got my eye that's all I could feel. I thought she had dropped (the scissors) and was just punching me with her fist because it was so dull. I was scared I'd lost my eye .... I thought it was just rolling around on the ground or something." Natashia said that the teachers at Collingwood College were slow to come to help because it was common for fights to take place during lunchtime. Speaking of the three girls involved in her attack, Natashia said that she found it difficult to accept that two of the three had showed no remorse. "In court they laughed and giggled whilst they were being told they were found guilty." Natashia's family have now moved her to America to live with relatives. They feel that she will be safer there. She is lucky not to have lost the sight in her eye. The ring-leader of the girl gang was found guilty at Guildford Crown Court of wounding Natashia Jackman with intent. She was sentenced to three-and-a-half years youth custody. The two other girls hid the scissors. They were given community orders for perverting the course of justice. Collingwood College, Camberley, is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. The RateMyTeachers website has thirty of the teaching staff at Collingwood College listed with pupil and parent ratings. On a rating scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (good), Collingwood College teachers score an average of 3.1 overall.
Sources: BBC News (London, UK) 21.12.06, 07.11.06, 03.11.06, 18.09.06, 15.09.06, 31.08.06 and 29.08.06, and The Daily Mail (London, UK) 06.11.06.

Fifteen-year old Roman Catholic girl has unexpected baby at school
A Year 11 pupil at St Joseph's Catholic College in Cunliffe Road, Manningham, Bradford (UK), has given birth to a baby in the school's medical room. The girl did not know that she was pregnant. She went into labour just after the start of the school day. School staff called an ambulance, but the girl gave birth before it arrived. Speaking for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds, John Grady was supportive: "It is something that will be talked about for some time but we are just happy that the girl is OK, the baby is OK, and hopefully they will be home this weekend and spend Christmas at home. It is not going to help to go moralising on the whole situation. That is not important, what is important is that the child and the baby are fine and everything is being done for them and their parents." The Head Teacher of St Joseph's, Pat McDermott, met the girl's mother and preparations were made for the girl to return to school and continue with her GCSEs. There is no claim of a virgin birth, but John Grady explained that, at St Joseph's Catholic College, childbirth is "not an everyday occurrence". St Joseph's is a comprehensive day school for girls with one thousand pupils on the roll aged 11 -19. It was founded in 1908 by The Order of The Sisters of the Cross and Passion. The school is due to be reorganised in September 2008. The RateMyTeachers website has forty three of the teaching staff at St Joseph's Catholic College listed with pupil and parent ratings. On a rating scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (good), St Joseph's Catholic College teachers score an average of 2.8 overall.
Sources: The Bradford Telegraph and Argus 18.12.06, BBC News (London, UK) 19.12.06 and The Guardian (London, UK) 20.12.06. See also: Convent girl elsewhere on this blog.

Murdered Suffolk prostitutes had teenage drug backgrounds
There are about forty prostitutes in Ipswich, Suffolk (UK), working the streets around the football club. Many do it to support a drug habit they began as teenagers. "Heroin stops you feeling, it really does. If you want to cry, you just can't cry. The feelings are just not there. I know. And when your feelings are suppressed, that's when you come out to work," said a former Ipswich prostitute, Jackie, aged 34. In December 2006, a bag of heroin costs £15 in Ipswich. Prostitute Gemma Adams was 25 when she was killed. Her partner reported her missing on the 15th November 2006. An ex-pupil of Kesgrave High School, Ipswich, she had horse-riding and piano lessons when younger and came from a prosperous middle-class family. Her father said: "Gemma was a normal happy girl until we lost her to drugs when she was about 17." Her naked body was found in a stream at Hintlesham, near Ipswich, on the 2nd December. Another local prostitute, Anneli Alderton, aged 24, was found dead in an area of woodland at Nacton, near Ipswich, on the 10th December. She was three months pregnant. Her school friends had introduced her to crack cocaine when she was thirteen years old. In the following years, she was jailed three times for theft. Other Ipswich prostitutes found dead include Annette Nicholls (29) who went missing on the 4th December, and Paula Clennell (24) who went missing on the 9th December. Both were found dead by police on the 12th December, in a woodland area outside the village of Levington, near Ipswich. Annette Nicholls did not start taking heroin until she was 26, and was embarrassed by her work as a prostitute, asking a friend to keep quiet about it. Nicholls was well-known by male clients locally and often stole their money. Paula Clennell had a severely disrupted childhood. Her parents divorced 10 years ago. She had problems at school and her later education was spent in a referral unit half a mile from where her body was found. She was dependant on hard drugs by the time she was twenty. Her friend Brian Wilmhurst (51) of Ipswich, said: "The drugs were the be-all and end-all to her. She would thieve to get the money. She was known for it. She stole from me. She always said she would die before the age of 25, but she thought it would be the drugs that would get her, not anything like this. She was so streetwise, I never saw her as vulnerable." A fifth murdered prostitute was nineteen-year-old Tania Nicol who lived with her family in Ipswich. Her mother reported her missing on the 30th October 2006. Her partially decomposed body was found in a pond at Copdock, near Ipswich, on the 8th December. She was naked, but had not been sexually assaulted. Tania Nicol was an ex-pupil of Chantry High School in Mallard Way, Ipswich. She worked in hotels before she began taking drugs and then turned to prostitution to fund her habit. Her father said: "Tania was a caring, loving, sensitive girl who would never hurt anyone. Unfortunately, drugs took her away into her own secret world."
Sources: BBC News (London, UK) 14.12.06 and 15.12.06, The Independent (London, UK) 14.12.06, and The Guardian (London, UK) 14.12.06 here and here. See also: The English Collective of Prostitutes.


Teenagers are damaging the planet with their excessive energy consuming habits
Our current teenagers are the most energy-hungry generation in human history. They consume 30% more energy than their parents did at the same age. Their bedrooms bulge with energy-gobbling televisions, computers, mobile phones and iPods. Today, bringing up a child to the age of 16 will generate 88 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is equivalent to running 17 cars for a year. Despite being taught about global warming, 86% of 10-year-olds leave televisions in their rooms on standby all the time, and 85% of 16-year-olds sleep with their mobile phones plugged into their chargers all night.
Source: The Guardian (London, UK) 14.12.06


Teenager worried about its father running a second woman
I am in my teens and my parents have been married for about 20 years. My father spends all his time talking to strangers on the internet. I know that, in particular, he talks to a woman who is around 25 years younger than him. Although this began as just chatting online, he now regularly texts her and sometimes telephones her. Many of the texts he has received from her say "I love you". Even though I feel bad for reading messages on his mobile, I cannot help feeling very angry about what he is doing. He is rude, unappreciative and moody with my mother and often makes excuses to leave family meals, saying he is working when he is actually on the internet. I do not know how much anyone else in my family knows about this. It feels as though there is a rising tension in the house. Should I approach my dad about this?
Source: The Guardian (London, UK) 14.12.06


Teenagers can't talk properly
British teenagers are held back by poor verbal skills. The top twenty words they use include yeah, no, but and like, and these account for a third of all the words they employ in routine discourse. Tony McEnery, Professor of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University, and Chairman of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, conducted the research. His study of blogs, questionnaires and speech found that teenagers used half the words of average 25 to 34-year-olds. Analysis of a teenage speech database indicated that teenagers had a vocabulary of just over 12,600 words compared with the 21,400 words used by average people aged 25 to 34. "Of note when examining the word 'no' is the frequency with which the word is accompanied by the word 'but'. These words occur in the sequence 'but no' or 'no but' almost twice as frequently in teenage speech as they do in young adult or middle aged speech," Tony McEnery said. Employers often complain that new young employees are unable to answer the telephone in the formal way required of them for work. Young employees are also intimidated by speaking formally in meetings. This is due to a lack of training and the overuse of technologies such as computer games and MP3 players. This trend, known as technology isolation syndrome, can lead to problems in the classroom and in later life. The supermarket Tesco commissioned Professor McEnery's research report.
Source: BBC News (London, UK) 13.12.06. And the BBC has a teen slang quiz here. This should only be attempted by low IQ Essex chavs under the age of twenty.


Teenagers kick man to death in Henley
Stephen Langford, 43, was kicked to death by a gang of youths in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (UK), as he went home at 1.45am after an evening with friends. He died at the Royal Berkshire hospital. Four teenage boys were involved. Two, aged 17 and 18, from Henley, have been arrested by police on suspicion of murder.
Sources: The Sunday Times (London, UK) 10.12.06 and The Guardian (London, UK) 11.12.06


Scottish schools told to keep quiet about headlice
Scottish local authorities have been criticised for banning schools from publicising outbreaks of nits for fear of stigmatising pupils. There have been complaints that headlice have been allowed to spread because schools are forbidden from informing parents of cases. Thirty out of thirty two of Scotland’s local authorities have policies that ensure that only the parents of an infected child are notified when nits are discovered. The other parents are being forced to rely on word of mouth anecdotes to find out if there is an alert. Scottish executive guidance says only parents of infected children should be told, to prevent those concerned from being bullied. Parents’ groups have dismissed the guidance as “nonsensical,” claiming it merely creates an attractive breeding ground for the parasites. “To rely on informal communication between parents is quite frankly a nonsense. You have no chance of combating a lice outbreak when nobody knows about it. The only winners are the lice in that game,” said Tina Woolnough, chair of Parents in Partnership. “By not informing parents and children, these (local authority) people are creating stigma. You end up with a whispering campaign. People talk informally behind the scenes, when what we should be doing is being open.” People in Britain spend £30m annually on treatments for headlice, parasitic creatures that live among the hair and are spread from person to person by contact. Earlier this year scientists reported that 80% of the headlice are immune to over-the-counter lotions sold at chemists and supermarkets.
Source: The Sunday Times (London, UK) 10.12.06. See also: Facts about headlice and nits here and here. And there are some nice pictures of headlice here, here, here, here and here.


Effects of cannabis on developing teenage brains
Half of young people using cannabis suffer side effects such as paranoia and blackouts. More than 80% of 727 young people in their teens and early 20s polled by the UK charity YoungMinds had tried the drug - the vast majority before they were 18. The charity is calling for urgent research on the effects of cannabis on the developing teenage brain. It is releasing guidance for young people and professionals on the effects cannabis may have on mental health. Studies indicate that young people who use cannabis regularly or heavily are at least twice as likely to develop a psychotic mental disorder by young adulthood than those who do not smoke.
Sources: BBC News (London, UK) 10.12.06 and YoungMinds (London, UK) 19.01.06. See also: DrugScope.


Teenage girl passengers are being killed by teenage boy racers
In the UK in 2004 there were 7,017 convictions for “causing death or bodily harm by dangerous driving” or “dangerous driving”, and 33 per cent of them were committed by men aged 17-20. Male drivers of this age are estimated to account for only 3 per cent of the driving population. In September 2006, Megan Humphrey, 17, of Plympton, near Plymouth, was killed when the car in which she was a front-seat passenger crashed off the A38. A 19-year-old man was arrested for causing death by dangerous driving. In August 2006, Kathryn Price, 15, of Penryn, was killed after being flung from a car that careered down an embankment on the Penryn bypass. The driver, Steven Harris, 20, of Falmouth, suffered serious head injuries. In January 2006, Emily Bradley, 19, of Beverley, near Hull, died when the car in which she was travelling hit a tree. James Bruin, 19, the driver, also died. In December 2005, Stephanie Cherry, 17, and her brother Will, 18, were killed with their friend Ashley Hinkins, 18, the driver, in a head-on collision on Christmas Day in Norfolk. In December 2005, Lisa Clements, 16, died on Christmas Day when she was thrown from a car driven by her 17-year-old brother. Their car overturned into a hedge after colliding with another car in Binfield Heath, near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Meredydd Hughes, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire, comments: “One fact quoted to me quite often is that the single biggest killer of teenage girls is their teenage boyfriends driving their cars.”
Source: The Times (London, UK) 04.12.06.

Teen girls killed in stolen car crash
Two teenage girls were killed when the stolen car they were travelling in turned over, smashed into a wall and split in two during a high-speed police chase in Plymouth, Devon (UK). Jade Brennand, aged 13 of St Judes, and Roxanne Trim, 17 of Ham, were in the back seat of a Vauxhall Nova. The accident happened at 10.20pm in Gdynia Way on Friday 5th January 2007. Police arrested two youths, aged 17 and 18. The 17-year-old boy appeared in court charged with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.
Sources: The Plymouth Herald (Devon, UK) 13.01.07 and The Times (London, UK) 08.01.07.

Mobile phone alarm kills teen girl
A 17-year-old who had an undiagnosed heart condition was killed by the sudden ringing of her mobile phone alarm. The girl, Kasia Ber, died in December 2005. She was later found to have had the genetic disorder Long QT syndrome. At the inquest in Hartlepool (UK), the coroner, Malcolm Donnelly, recorded a narrative verdict that Kasia died as a result of the undiagnosed condition and suffered fatal ventricular arrhythmia. In the days before she died her breathlessness was diagnosed as being due to stress.
Source: The Guardian (London, UK) 02.12.06


Ecstasy harms brain on first use
People who use ecstasy for the first time could suffer impaired memory and harm to their brains. Even low doses can cause changes to the brain, according to the first study to compare users before and after they took the drug for the first time. It found blood flow to parts of the brain was reduced and that users struggled in memory tests. "We do not know if these effects are transient or permanent," said Maartje de Win at the University of Amsterdam, who led the study. "Therefore, we cannot conclude that ecstasy, even in small doses, is safe for the brain, and people should be informed of this risk." In the UK, 1.6% of 16 to 59-year-olds report using ecstasy. When the drug first hit the club scene in the late 1980s, a pill typically cost £25, but prices have fallen to between £1 and £5. Ecstasy is a Class A drug. The drug's effects are thought to come from disruption of the regulation of serotonin, a brain chemical believed to play a role in mood and memory. It is not clear whether these effects are the result of permanent neurotoxic damage or just temporary reversible alterations. Dr de Win's research team found subtle changes to cell architecture and decreased blood flow in some brain regions. They also found that first-time ecstasy users performed worse than non-users on memory tests. Previous research has shown that long-term or heavy ecstasy use can damage serotonin-dependent neurons and cause depression, anxiety, confusion, sleeping difficulties and decrease in memory. There have been more than 200 reported ecstasy-related deaths in the UK over the last 15 years. In the year 2001 there were with 43 deaths in England and Wales alone.
Source: The Guardian (London, UK) 28.11.06


The rise of creationism in UK schools
Dozens of schools are using creationist teaching materials condemned by the government as "not appropriate to support the science curriculum." The DVD information packs being used promote the creationist alternative to Darwinian evolution called Intelligent Design. The group behind them, Truth in Science UK, said 59 schools are using the information as a useful classroom resource. Nick Cowan, a well-known local creationist and Head of Chemistry at The Blue Coat School, Liverpool, intends to use the DVDs to present intelligent design as an alternative to Darwinism. He said: "Just because it takes a negative look at Darwinism doesn't mean it is not science. I think to critique Darwinism is quite appropriate." The UK government has stated that in its opinion neither intelligent design nor creationism are recognised scientific theories. The Chairman of the Parliamentary Science and Technology Select Committee, Phil Willis, is horrified that the packs are being used in schools: "I am flabbergasted that any Head of Science would give credence to this creationist theory and be prepared to put it alongside Darwinism. Treating it as an alternative centralist theory alongside Darwinism in science lessons is deeply worrying." Richard Buggs, a spokesman for Truth in Science UK, disagrees: "We are not attacking the teaching of Darwinian theory. We are just saying that criticisms of Darwin's theory should also be taught." Some say that this growing row is just a battle between two tired old fundamentalisms: secular materialistic science and dogmatic religion. Both are getting desperate as their sell-by dates approach.
Sources: The Guardian (London, UK) 27.11.06 and BBC News (London, UK) 27.11.06. See also: Truth in Science UK and BCSE Countering Creationism Within the UK.


Irish age of consent to be lowered to 16
The Irish government is to reduce the age of consent from 17 to 16, in a reform of the law on teenage sexual activity and the protection of children. The only exception to the age limit of 16 will be in relation to sexual activity with adults in positions of authority, including teachers, youth leaders and sports coaches. In order to make a clear distinction from sexual activity among teenage peers, these adults will be liable to prosecution if they have sex with a teenager under 18. The Director of Public Prosecutions will also be given greater discretion and a far more influential role in deciding whether to prosecute teenagers younger than 16 who engage in sexual contact, or very young adults in relationships with older teenagers.
Source: The Sunday Times (London, UK) 26.11.06


Teenager dies impaled on railing
Nineteen-year-old Stephen Saunders was killed when he became impaled on spiked railings at a churchyard in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. He was trying to climb over the railings and slipped.
Source: The Sunday Times (London, UK) 26.11.06


Dangerous cancer chemical in street cocaine
More cocaine is now being taken in the UK than in almost any other European country. Five per cent of young people in England and Wales have tried the drug in the last year. Cocaine use has risen more than four-fold for 15 to 24-year-olds in the last 12 years. Cocaine is now Europe's second most popular drug after cannabis. The addictive drug's popularity is rising because its street price is falling. This fall in price is due to street cocaine being mixed with cheap chemical additives to bulk out the weight of the drug. One of these additives is Phenacetin. It is used as a bulking agent because it resembles pure cocaine. Phenacetin is a carcinogenic painkiller banned from general medical use in 1968 after it was linked to bladder and kidney cancer. The average purity of manufactured cocaine is 70%. But investigators believe that street dealers in Britain are now selling the drug with a purity as low as 30%. Demand for cocaine has risen so much in the UK that drug smugglers are attempting to bring the substance into the UK in dogs as well as in human drug mules. In the case of dogs, the drug is wrapped in latex and sewn between the skin and stomach lining of the animal. Police have found six dogs alive with 49 latex packages inside their bodies, weighing a total of 4.3kg. Drugs like cocaine cost the UK fifteen billion pounds a year in medical, social and economic costs.
Source: BBC News (London, UK) 23.11.06


Crystal meth is Britain's deadliest drug problem
Crystal meth has the potential to rival crack cocaine as the country's most dangerous drug, police chiefs have said. The stimulant, methamphetamine, is also known as "ice" or "Nazi crank". This new synthetic drug is available in almost every city in Britain and is becoming popular among clubbers, gay men, heroin addicts and rough sleepers. Crystal meth can be smoked, swallowed, snorted or injected. It is now more popular than cocaine or heroin in parts of America, and is considered by some to be more dangerous. Crystal meth is highly addictive. It causes cardiovascular problems and increased blood pressure. An overdose can cause overheating and convulsions.
Source: The Independent (London, UK) 21.11.06. Late note: From the 18th January 2007, Crystal meth has been re-classified as a Class A drug in the UK. This puts it alongside ecstasy, cocaine and heroin. Crystal meth has been linked to kidney failure, internal bleeding, rotting of teeth and gums, premature aging, physical violence and uninhibited sexual behaviours. Source: BBC News (London, UK) 18.01.07. See also: Drugs and the law.


Scotland to raise smoking age
The Scottish Executive is backing plans to raise the legal age for buying cigarettes from 16 to 18. There is a possibility that the change could become law by May 2007. An organisation representing Scottish pubs and hotels has claimed that Scotland's smoking ban has already driven away regular drinkers. The Scottish Licensed Trade Association surveyed 365 members and said sales of alcohol appeared to have fallen by more than 10% since the ban was introduced.
Sources: BBC News (London, UK) 23.11.06 and 23.08.06


Health fears cause schools to remove wireless computer networks
Parents and teachers are forcing schools to dismantle wireless computer networks. There are fears that they could damage children’s health. More and more schools have been putting transmitters in classrooms recently to give pupils wireless access from laptops to the school computer network and the internet. Many parents and some scientists fear that low levels of microwave radiation emitted by the transmitters could be harmful, causing loss of concentration, headaches, fatigue, memory and behavioural problems and possibly cancer in the long term. The scientific evidence is inconclusive at present, but some researchers think that children are vulnerable because of their thinner skulls and developing nervous systems.
Source: The Times (London, UK) 20.11.06. See also: The Times (London, UK) 11.12.06.


Sex with under-16s is a grey area
Chief constable Terry Grange says that young men who have sex with girls aged 13 or over should not necessarily be classed as paedophiles. The word "paedophile" should only apply to men who have sex with pre-pubescents. The term "child pornography" should apply to images of children aged below 13. Under UK law anyone who has sex with an under-16 has committed an offence. If the child is 13 or older and consenting, the offence is classed as "unlawful sexual intercourse". But if they are under 13 the offence is rape. Terry Grange, chief constable of Dyfed-Powys police and spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers on child protection and managing sex offenders, said his views reflected this "grey area".
Sources: BBC News (London, UK) 19.11.06, The Sunday Times (London, UK) 19.11.06 and 26.11.06, The Independent (London, UK) 20.11.06 and The Daily Telegraph (London, UK) 20.11.06. See also: Sexual health and safety for hot young lovers elsewhere on this blog.


Father cleared of raping teenage chess girl
In another of the growing number of false rape allegations made by teenagers, Ian Gilbert (49), a director at the Royal Bank of Scotland, has been cleared of repeatedly raping his daughter, Jessica Gilbert, over a five-year period when she was between the ages of eight and thirteen. Guildford Crown Court viewed videos of Jessica Gilbert claiming to police that her father had often crept into her bedroom at the family home in Woldingham, Surrey, to rape her at night. Jessie Gilbert, an unstable, headstrong and manipulative nineteen year-old, committed suicide in Paradubice in the Czech Republic on the 26th July 2006. She jumped to her death from the eighth floor of the Hotel Labe. Jessie Gilbert was a child chess prodigy who said that she hoped to go to Oxford University to read medicine.
Sources: The Daily Telegraph (London, UK) 15.12.06, BBC News (London, UK) 07.11.06 and The Daily Mail (London, UK) 27.07.06. See also: The False Allegations Support Organisation (FASO), The False Memory Syndrome Foundation, and The suicide portal elsewhere on this blog. Late note: Alexander Baron offers an alternative view of Jessie Gilbert at the base of this page. See also: JessieGilbert.com for positive comments.


Pupil filmed sex with teacher
Drama teacher Rebecca Poole, 26, was filmed on a mobile telephone performing a sex act on a 15-year-old schoolboy. The matter came to light when the boy's parents saw the incriminating video footage while checking his phone. The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had held a screwdriver to the teacher's head, grabbed her hair and forced her to give him oral sex. The incident took place in a Birmingham school drama studio. Mrs Poole did not report the matter to the school authorities because she feared it would ruin her career. The boy alleged that, in addition, he had had sex with Mrs Poole in her husband’s Porsche on about seven different occasions. Birmingham Crown Court saw the pupil’s video of the incident, in which he grins at the camera. Mrs Poole was cleared of three charges of sexual activity with a child and one of abuse of trust. The jury took just over an hour to deliver its unanimous verdict. Mrs Poole said afterwards that she will never work as a teacher again.
Sources: BBC News (London, UK) here and here (06.11.06 and 16.11.06), and The Times (London, UK) 17.11.06. See also: Sexual health and safety for hot young lovers elsewhere on this blog.


Six months detention for teenager whose rape lies put man in jail
A teenage shop assistant whose false rape claims wrecked a young man’s life has been sentenced to six months detention. Katie Davis was 16 when she claimed that a balaclava-clad man had raped her in an alley-way. In fact she had spent the night with a man she met in the street, and made up the rape story because she was afraid that she might be pregnant. Frank Chisholm, 24, was charged with rape, had three bail applications rejected and was held in prison for ten weeks. The case was dropped only after scientific evidence supported his explanation that they had consensual sex at his home in St Leonards, East Sussex. Katie Davis, now 18, has been convicted of perverting the course of justice and has began her sentence in a young offender institution. Judge Richard Brown said Mr Chisholm, who always maintained the pair had consensual sex, had no stain against his character, and described Katie Davis as “wicked and evil”. Frank Chisholm has gone from being an outgoing and sociable young man to feeling nervous and paranoid and unable to trust anyone. When he went into his local fish and chip shop after his release, people would call him a rapist and goad him by asking for ‘rape and chips’. Chisholm said: “One call from that girl has changed my whole life forever. This seems like a nightmare that will never end.”
Sources: The Times (London, UK) 14.11.06, Safari UK and The Daily Telegraph (London, UK) 14.11.06. See also: Sexual health and safety for hot young lovers elsewhere on this blog.


Girl who cried rape is jailed
A teenager whose false claim that she had been raped led to four innocent men spending 36 hours in police custody, has been jailed for six months for attempting to pervert the course of justice. Cinzia Sannino, 18, withdrew her complaint after one of the men produced film of the private sex party which he had taken on his mobile phone. Welsh-born Sannino from Llanishen, Cardiff, met the men, aged between 20 and 28, at a bar, before she went back to the home of one of them. She voluntarily stripped naked to perform a lap-dance and encouraged the men to touch her sexually while she danced. She then invited them to have sex with her. Sannino, who was 17 at the time and wants to become a nurse, describes herself on her website as "a wild girl who likes to have fun." She told police she had danced for the men but had kept all her clothes on. She alleged she had felt dizzy and fell asleep but woke up the next morning to find one of the men having sex with her. She told police she felt like she had been drugged before being raped by two men. At Cardiff Crown Court, Mr Justice Roderick Evans told Cinzia Sannino that it had been fortunate for the men that one of them had filmed her. The False Allegations Support Organisation (FASO) welcomed the sentence: "Up to now girls who falsely accuse have had nothing done to them. We welcome this course of action because at the moment there are too many people jumping on the bandwagon as they are aware they can get compensation for false accusations. It's not fair on the girls who have actually been raped."
Sources: BBC News (London, UK) 18.09.06 and The Daily Telegraph (London, UK) 19.09.06.


Young UK teenagers are being groomed to become Islamic suicide bombers
Speaking at Queen Mary's College, London, on the 9th November 2006, the Director General of the British Security Service, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, said: "Today, my officers and the police are working to contend with some 200 groupings or networks, totalling over 1600 identified individuals who are actively engaged in plotting, or facilitating, terrorist acts here and overseas. The extremists are motivated by a sense of grievance and injustice driven by their interpretation of the history between the West and the Muslim world. The propaganda machine is sophisticated and Al-Qaida itself says that 50% of its war is conducted through the media. In Iraq, attacks are regularly videoed and the footage downloaded onto the internet within 30 minutes. Virtual media teams then edit the result, translate it into English and many other languages, and package it for a worldwide audience. And, chillingly, we see the results here. Young teenagers are being groomed to be suicide bombers."
Sources: The MI5 website (London, UK) and The Daily Telegraph (London, UK) 10.11.06.


Muslim abuse is rising in schools
Bullying prompted by Islamophobia is on the rise in schools across the UK. Schools minister Jim Knight reminded teachers, at a conference, of new ways to deal with bullying through the internet and mobile phones. This includes the right to ban mobile phones from school classrooms.
Source: BBC News (London, UK) 13.11.06 here and here.


Islamists infiltrate four universities
Islamic extremists have infiltrated at least four British universities to radicalise Muslim students. Fundamentalists are bypassing campus bans on groups with radical links by presenting themselves as ordinary Muslims to fellow students or by forming societies with alternative names. “We are dealing with people filled with hatred,” says Sheikh Musa Admani, a Muslim chaplain at London Metropolitan University. “It’s hatred for the white man and the West in particular, because they have read the works of Qutb and Maududi (Islamist ideologues followed by Al-Qaeda) who set Muslims apart from everyone else.” The four universities identified as being Islamist recruiting grounds are Brunel University (west London), Bedfordshire University (Luton), Sheffield Hallam University and Manchester Metropolitan University.
Source: The Sunday Times (London, UK) 12.11.06. Plus: BBC News (London, UK) 17.11.06.


Islamic hip-hop artists indoctrinate young against the West
Hip-hop and rap artists are teaching young Muslims the ideology of radical Islamism through songs about the war in Iraq, the oppression of Muslims and the creation of an Islamic state governed by Sharia, or religious law. Western intelligence agencies have identified music as a tool for indoctrination. The phenomenon began with an American rap group called the Soldiers of Allah from Los Angeles. The group has since disbanded but its music, ringtones and lyrics remain popular on the internet. Other groups in Britain, France and the US have been identified as giving cause for concern. Many use the derogatory term “kufur” to describe non-Muslims. An American intelligence analyst called Madeleine Gruen has highlighted the lyrics of a British rap group called Blakstone as a possible gateway to extremist politics. Such music, internet forums, board games and fashion have been used to radicalise youths. Blakstone’s lyrics echo the views of Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamist political movement banned by the National Union of Students in British universities. Blakstone operates from an industrial estate in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey. It sells its music on the streets from the back of a van.
Source: The Times (London, UK) 11.11.06. See also: Sex and hip-hop.


Pupils must stop hugging each other
Headteacher Steve Kenning of Callington Community College in Cornwall (UK) is trying to stop his pupils hugging each other. He claims that excessive hugging is making youngsters late for lessons and, in some cases, is leading to inappropriate embraces. Pupils say that some of them have received detentions for hugging while others have been publicly named and shamed in assembly. Local councillor, Kath Pascoe, thinks that the school's attitude is ridiculous. Mrs Pascoe, who has two grandchildren at the school, said: "I don't see anything wrong with hugging - better that than fighting and arguing." It would appear that control freak Steve Kenning is a metalloid automaton with no heart. The RateMyTeachers website has three of the teaching staff at Callington Community College listed with pupil and parent ratings. On a rating scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (good), Callington Community College teachers score an average of 4.0 overall.
Source: The Guardian (London, UK) 04.11.06. See also: Sexual health and safety for hot young lovers elsewhere on this blog.


Substance abuse soars in UK schools
Thousands of young teenagers are risking their lives sniffing glue and aerosols in a new epidemic of solvent abuse in schools. While the use of cannabis and class A drugs has risen slightly over seven years, the numbers sniffing glue shot up from 28,000 to 168,000 in 2005. The number aged 11 to 15 years using stimulants, such as amyl nitrate, has doubled from 3 per cent to 6 per cent, or 144,000 children, in the same period. Volatile substance abuse (VSA) kills at least one young person a week in the UK. Twenty three per cent of these deaths show no evidence of any previous use. Butane lighter refills are responsible for more than half the lives lost. There are now more deaths from VSA among 10 to 16-year-olds than all illegal drugs put together, yet recent anti-drug campaigns have not touched on solvents, focusing instead on the dangers of Ecstasy and other hard drugs.
Sources: The Times (London, UK) 04.11.06 and The Institute for Public Policy Research (London, UK).


Teenager fed live cat to snarling dog
Callum Myers of Huddersfield, England, an eighteen-year-old human, has been recorded on a CCTV camera feeding a live cat called Tigger to a Staffordshire bull terrier called Gypsy. Tigger and Gypsy are now dead; Myers is still alive. He was captured on video grinning as two friends watched him dangle the cat above the snarling dog. He stood back as Gypsy savaged Tigger, snapping his ribs and ripping open his heart. Myers was on licence for robbery at the time of the attack. In court he showed no remorse and was told that he faced a life ban from keeping animals. Myers has a history of cruelty, and had enticed Gypsy to kill a puppy a few weeks earlier. Callum Myers is not an EMO, he is a hoodie. Tigger was a friendly cat.
Source: The Times (London, UK) 01.11.06


Are My Chemical Romance a danger to teenagers?
The Thought Police at The Daily Mail comic (London, UK) want parents to think that the gruntbucket band, My Chemical Romance, are an evil influence on vulnerable teen EMOs. An EMO is an emotionally maladjusted orc. But the band themselves insist that they are not EMO clones. Nor are they promoting a dangerous teen cult of self-mutilation. Chemical grunter Gerard Way said: "I'm surprised a newspaper thought we were such a threat that they had to write a whole article about us and our fans, calling them a death cult. We're so opposed to it because when we started out there were EMO bands all around and we stuck out as not being EMO." What My Chemical Romance do will never replace music.
Source: The Guardian (London, UK) 27.10.06. See also the piece lower down this page headed Neo-Goth mutants at risk from EMO cult.


Fines for teenage Halloween troublemakers
Teenagers who cause trouble while out trick-or-treating face fines of £80 by some police forces this Halloween. Police are preparing for a sharp rise in anti-social behaviour to coincide with the annual festival. There is a 20% increase in nuisance crime around this time of the year. Thousands of extra police officers will be on duty on Tuesday 31st October. Unmarked spotter cars will also be on patrol, looking out for unruly youths who take advantage of the night when many of the nation's children will go out trick-or-treating. Donna Bell, spokeswoman for Cheshire police said: "Last year (in 2005) we received 1,519 calls on Halloween, when the normal level would have been about 1,000. The year before it was 1,317 and in 2003 is was 1,119. Last year, the majority of calls complained of damage to property, rowdy behaviour and intimidation."
Source: BBC News (London, UK) 28.10.06. Plus: A Halloween masque for religious terrorists.


Government minister tries to put up tax on alcopops
Labour Party fun-spoiler, Patricia Hewitt, the government Health Secretary, wants a swingeing increase in tax on alcopops and other alcoholic drinks favoured by teenagers. She is demanding this action in an attempt to stop young people damaging their health by binge drinking. Education, apparently, has failed. Hewitt has written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer asking him to ratchet up the cost of alcohol in his next budget, to price it beyond the reach of youngsters' earnings or pocket money. She said: "We've got enormous numbers of young people, particularly on a Friday and Saturday night, ending up in the casualty department of hospitals because they're drunk. They've fallen over and bashed their heads in because they're drinking too much. I think putting taxes up on alcohol would help discourage young people from spending too much money on alcohol." Latest figures for 16-24 year olds in England showed that 33 per cent of young men drank more than eight units of alcohol on at least one day of the week in 2004. And 24 per cent of young women drank more than six units on at least one day of the week. These are the officially-recognised thresholds for unsafe binge drinking. Evidence reveals that 80 per cent of deaths on Friday and Saturday nights are drink-related. Alcopops sales were £1.2bn last year, in England alone. Drinking-related deaths are increasing. Four thousand people died from alcoholic liver disease in 2004. This was up 37% compared with five years before. The number admitted to hospital with alcohol-related liver disease has more than doubled over the past decade. Admissions in 2004-05 were a record 35,400, compared with 14,400 in 1995-96. About two-thirds of them were men. More people were turning up at Accident & Emergency units with alcohol poisoning. In 2004-05, about 21,700 had to be admitted for further care, against 13,600 a decade earlier. Alcohol is also damaging mental health. About 126,000 people with mental or behavioural disorders resulting from alcohol abuse were admitted for in-patient care in 2004-05, compared with 72,500 in 1995-06. The Treasury told Hewitt to piss off and stop being silly.
Sources: The Guardian (London, UK) 27.10.06, The Times (London, UK) 27.10.06, First News (Horsley, Surrey, UK) 28.10.06 and the British Medical Journal (London, UK) 28.10.06.


Nicaragua votes to outlaw abortion
Nicaragua has voted to ban all forms of abortion, including operations to save a pregnant woman's life, after a campaign by the Roman Catholic Church. Prison sentences ranging from six to thirty years will be given to women who terminate their pregnancies and to doctors who assist them. This decision will endanger women's lives and criminalise doctors who try to save their patients. Eighty five per cent of the population in Nicaragua is Roman Catholic. Religion sometimes has a poisonous influence in under-resourced parts of the world. Roman Catholicism has deliberately made the AIDS crisis worse in Africa by encouraging sex without condoms. Hundreds of thousands are dying unnecessarily as a direct result of this church policy. In the UK, the 1967 Abortion Act made abortion legal up to 28 weeks gestation. In 1990, the law was amended: abortion is now legal only up to 24 weeks except in cases where it is necessary to save the life of the woman, or there is evidence of extreme foetal abnormality, or there is a grave risk of physical or mental injury to the woman. The total number of abortions in England and Wales in 2005 was 186,400 (compared with 185,700 in 2004 - a rise of 0.4%). The abortion rate for under-16s was just 3.7 per 1,000 women and the under-18 rate 17.8 per 1,000 women, both the same as in 2004. 89% of abortions were carried out when the foetus was less than 13 weeks old; 67% at under 10 weeks. Here are stories from two teenagers who had abortions. Zoe Gillard was seventeen at the time and Kat Stark was nineteen. There are risks in having an abortion. Some women without past mental health problems are at risk of psychological ill-effects. Some research evidence suggests that women who have abortions have twice the level of mental health problems and three times the risk of major depressive illnesses than those who give birth or who have never been pregnant.
Sources: The Guardian (London, UK) 27.10.06 here and here, and The Times (London, UK) 27.10.06 here.


Children born after IVF treatment face higher health risks
Children born to parents who have undergone fertility treatment are more likely to have autism, cancer, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, hearing and sight problems than children born to naturally fertile couples. The research was done at the University of California and drew on an analysis of 19,000 medical records. In Britain, one in seven couples has difficulty conceiving, and 10,242 babies were born through IVF in 2003-04.
Sources: The Guardian (London, UK) 26.10.06 and The Times (London, UK) 26.10.06.


Death by chocolate
John Cumby, aged thirty, threw a large chocolate at the window of a 16-year-old boy's house in Great Yarmouth. The teenager responded by stabbing Cumby in the heart and killing him. The boy has been found guilty of manslaughter. For legal reasons, he cannot be named. The large chocolate, however, can be named. It was a Cadbury’s Creme Egg.
Source: The Times (London, UK) 26.10.06.


Neo-Goth mutants at risk from EMO cult
Teenage ex-Goths may be mutating into self-harming EMO clones. EMO is a new teen disease. It affects a chalky white corpse look with black lips and eyes. Fundamentalist Islam is not involved. EMOs are immature, erratically emotional BabyBats. They empathise with the undead. They hand in their coursework late. They exchange competitive messages on their websites and mobiles about the scars on their wrists and how best to display them as fashion accessories. Go to an EMO gig with a band like Panic! and you'll notice something strange. Sixty per cent of the audience is girls. It is said that these girls have wrists. And some flaunt them. The Panic! band members don't like their association with EMO. Panic! uglieboy Brendon Urie (13) is not an intellectual: "EMO is bullshit," he posits, "We're emotional, but we don't fit the EMO stereotype."
Sources: The Daily Telegraph (London, UK) 26.10.06 and The Daily Mail (London, UK) 16.08.06.


If I were raped today, I would not report it to the police
Julie Bindel has lost faith in the system. When she was 18, she worked in a pub. One evening, the landlord and his son tried to rape her. She got away but didn't report the incident to the police because, back in 1980, it was recognised that women who reported a sexual assault were seen as liars. Shabnam, an 18-year-old Asian woman, had been drinking in a pub with her friend Simon, before walking to a local park where she agreed to have sex with him. Afterwards, Simon rang a friend, who arrived a short while later with another man in tow. All three raped Shabnam, during which one of the men filmed some of the activity on his mobile phone. When the men left, Shabnam called 999 and reported that she had been raped. When the police arrived, the first thing the officer said was, "Ugh! She stinks of alcohol." Shabnam had been raped before when she was twelve. When she told the police this, their attitude changed, as if she was a loose woman. The police escorted her home, where her mother was waiting. The officer asked Shabnam's mother if her daughter was "mentally unsound".
Source: The Guardian (London, UK) 25.10.06. See also: Sexual health and safety for hot young lovers elsewhere on this blog.


Schools to be sent teen emotions packs
Research at Oxford University has indicated that ten per cent of UK teenagers self-harm. Inner pain is being exchanged for outer pain. Slashed wrists are becoming a nuisance. Forty one schools were involved in the research sponsored by The Samaritans. More than half of UK teenagers did not know how to express their feelings. God help the parents and teachers of the other half. Only forty per cent of young people sought a friend's help before harming themselves. The Samaritans DEAL pack being sent to schools includes lesson plans and a DVD of scary C-list celebs like Heidi Range (Chocababes) and Danny McNamara (Cuddle). DEAL stands for Developing Emotional Awareness and Learning. It also stands for Dummies Educating Adolescent Loafers.
Sources: BBC News (London, UK) 24.10.06 and The Samaritans (Ewell, Surrey, UK) 24.10.06.


Lock 'em up - youth justice system in crisis
The number of young people held in custody in England and Wales has reached a record high. The Youth Justice Board says that over 3,350 youngsters are now incarcerated. Only a handful of beds are free to cater for new victims. Many teenagers are being held hundreds of miles away from their families. Not all families are complaining. The likely consequence of teenage imprisonment on this scale is the creation of more adult career criminals. Out of sight, out of mind, ducky.
Sources: BBC News (London, UK) 24.10.06 and The Youth Justice Board (London, UK) 24.10.06.


Teenage bolshies want a say in how schools are run
Adolescent rabble-rouser, Hannah Couchman, says: "Give us our voice in class." This Student Voice activist is a council member for the English Secondary Students Association. She admiringly cites teen revolutionaries at Flegg High School, Norfolk. In April 2006, a hundred and twenty of these malcontents walked out of school in protest when their school lunch hour was shortened to thirty minutes. The pupils had not been consulted. The police were called. Comrade Couchman says that there is a problem. It is preventing the articulation in schools of an effective student voice. What is the problem? The belief that adults know what is best for young people. A new heresy is emerging: schools exist for the benefit of their pupils.
Sources: The Guardian (London, UK) 23.10.06 and The English Secondary Students Association (London, UK) 23.10.06.


Teenagers are having far too much bad sex
Britain’s 15-year-olds are the most sexually active in Europe. But they routinely fail to take precautions against sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy, such as wearing a condom. The Institute for Public Policy Research says sex education for primary schoolchildren must be rethought. Britain has the highest rate of births to women aged 15 to 19 in Europe, with an average of 26 live births per 1,000. Sluts, the lot of them.
Sources: The Times (London, UK) 23.10.06 and the IPPR (London, UK) 23.10.06. See also: Sexual health and safety for hot young lovers elsewhere on this blog.


Yobbish teenagers are not being confronted
Teenagers are violent, antisocial yobbos. Most British adults would not intervene if they saw youths behaving in an antisocial manner. British adults are wimps. They would be the least likely to step in if they saw a group of 14-year-old boys vandalising a bus shelter. Only 34 per cent said they would intervene, compared with 65 per cent of Germans, 52 per cent of Spanish and 50 per cent of Italians. British adults said that they would turn a blind eye. They feared being attacked or verbally abused. Teenage yobbos need kicking up the bum.
Sources: The Times (London, UK) 23.10.06 and The Institute for Public Policy Research (London, UK). Plus - We're not so scary. Teenagers speak out. What are you afraid of? The Guardian (London, UK) 24.10.06


Genital mutilation threat to teenagers
Nineteen-year-old Esther Fornah survived war, kidnap, rape, pregnancy, a miscarriage, losing her family, escaping Sierra Leone and arriving, friendless, in Britain. But it was the threat genital mutilation that finally won her the right to stay in Britain, after a three-year legal battle. In Sierra Leone, girls are traditionally circumcised from the age of five. Another term for female circumcision is female genital mutilation. Often, it is a religiously-motivated adult behaviour, carried out without the informed consent of the female victim. In some local areas of Muslim Africa, as many as 95 per cent of women have suffered genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation has been carried out on about 75,000 first-generation African immigrants in Britain. Adult African immigrant families are clubbing together to pay for African genital mutilators to fly to Britain and circumcise their daughters in secret rituals. This practice is a violation of human rights. It is not a good idea to have you clitoris messed about with knives and needles. It's a bit like having the tip of you penis snipped off with pinking shears. A waste of perfectly good meat; an attempt by religion to destroy your pleasure.
Sources: The Times (London, UK) 23.10.06 here and here, and Wikipedia here. See also: Sexual health and safety for hot young lovers elsewhere on this blog.


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Teen issues

Sexual health and safety for hot young lovers

Understanding the New Age Children

Is Harry Potter true?

The suicide portal


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Tuesday girl

Slinky ClubGirl goes out on the town

Aquarian elf girl

Kristianne Wych Christian Wicca

Harriet feels a burning sensation

Emergency chocolate cake pictures for female teens

Student life

Office separation

Men's issues

Women's issues

Teen issues

Unlike the others

My name is Television


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Traditional Norfolk koans

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