Bangkok Post - February 17, 2005
Sanitsuda Ekachai**

In our pimple-plagued days, teenagers were said to be rebellious, anti-establishment spirits. Cool, wasn't it? For if it had not been for the Student Uprising back then, we might still be under the thumb of the military dictators.

Well, we might have a different type of dictatorship now. And many of the idealists back then might now be the fat-cats in power who maintain the new despotic regime. But many others of their age have managed to keep alive their hopes of an open society.

The paths they took may have diverged, but the 70s dreamers at least can look back on being part of a hopeful, confident youth movement. What will our children have to look back on?

Judging from the newspaper headlines on teenagers this past year, they are all a decadent lot.

Apart from the occasional headlines about gang fights, daredevil car races and computer game addictions, most of the news about Thai teenagers involves sex, and it never fails to sell.

No, it's not about the sexual curiosity typical of all teenagers through the ages, but the sort of outrageous sexual behaviour that the media invariably characterises as the cause of the decline of society as we know it.

Here are some examples:

Secret danger: teenage sexual addictions;

Society in decay: A 14-year-old girl cheats her mother for money to rent a hotel room to have sex with her boyfriends;

Teenage girls are emotional and rootless;

Teen sex on buses is rampant, a result of media influence, social decay;

Teen petting all the rage in quiet corners of fast-food outlets, not motels; and

Teens a cause of worry in 2004: a sharp rise in Aids predicted.

A few days before this year's Valentine's Day, the media headlines screamed that more than 100,000 Bangkok teenage girls were set to lose their virginity on Feb 14, while up to 20,000 or about 7% of sexually active youngsters had tried swinging sex.

No one questioned the accuracy of the pollster's claims because teen sex, true or not, always sells.

The same day, the Public Health Ministry revealed that sexually transmitted diseases had increased threefold among teenagers due to high-risk behaviour.

Sexually promiscuous and sick: That is the image of today's youth, thanks to sensational headlines, a lack of media interest in understanding the teenager's world, and society's obsession with voyeurism.

Children's rights activists are concerned. These media portrayals, they say, fan prejudice against and contempt for young people, which affects public opinion and a teenager's self-worth.

The Fourth Estate should be concerned. Many of its sensational headlines come from rough surveys, hearsay and individual observations extrapolated into sweeping social phenomena.

The bus petting reports are a case in point. One young woman related her disgust at a seminar at seeing teenagers petting on a bus. The media reported this as a shocking social problem.

Although it takes two to tango, the media nearly always hold girls to blame for lacking in morals. This is why the morality police always respond by dispensing more rules to control female sexuality rather than encouraging gender respect and responsibility.

Being a teenager is never easy. So how can we expect our young to adjust to the difficulties when we keep telling them they are bad?

Our young are not only struggling with hormones that make them feel uncomfortable with themselves and the world. They are also put in a spin by burning consumerism and a popular culture that glorifies sex and violence.

We can help our children cope. But we make it very hard for ourselves and for them when we are fiercely judgmental and blind to our own sexual hypocrisy and double standards.

** Sanitsuda Ekachai is Assistant Editor, Bangkok Post.sanitsudae

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