"It is true that communication appears to be quite difficult between senior
parliament members and Swiss youth today. Hooliganism, hijacking, pedophilia and other disastrous similarities conveyed on the web overwhelm the Swiss adult population. Portable telephones for instance go beyond their original use (picture taking, alarm clock, MP3) and are today considered as a "weapon". Recently, broadcast of teenager sexual frolics filmed in a college lavatory, or  blogs abusing college teachers have had legal consequences. "Happy slappings", "chats" of alleged youngsters urging the use of a webcam to diffuse these on pedophile sites, "snuff movies" (torture, violence, death simulation) pictures transmitted on our children's portables; and even Sadam Hussein's hanging... our youngsters no longer master the parameters of space and time. They cannot take the necessary distance required to differentiate virtuality and reality. Internet is indeed a paradox : it helps communicate and inform, but it also destroys our youth.
  
Solutions, beyond the legal approach, are to make parents aware of their responsibilities, to have recourse to technical help to limit access to the web and shortcut upstream (providers in Switzerland are not compelled to supply filters). Increasing the use of sports in college to irradicate violence and fully occupy our youth. Unfortunately, our budget "youth and sport" has been cut down. In addition to the need for more money, our politics should also bear their share of responsibility by legalizing unaccess to certain websites. We do not have the means for this prevention because, in spite of the fact that our national supplier, Swisscom, partially owned by the State, makes a lot of money, particularly on mobiles and SMS messages, the Confederation invests only some of the returns in prevention thereof. Not enough, because we cannot hit at the base and the government does not want to lose this godsend."
  
In spite of that, compared to our neighbours, our youngsters are among the best. I have read in the local paper today that the British are afraid of their teenagers whom they call "hoodies" or "chavs". This phenomenon is entitled "pedophobia". Faced with youngsters committing civil vandalism,  4% of British adults would intervene, compared to 65% of Germans and 52% of Spaniards. In Unicef's February report, the British youngsters are said to be the most "miserable" among those of developped countries and are listed last as concerns "relationship".
  
Gracie M. Beiner
MCEI Geneva Chapter