But this sometimes ridiculed medium can be a powerful weapon for turning young people away from courts and unemployment queues.
As the problems of kids, particularly in inner cities, become more complex, youth agencies are turning increasingly towards arts-based projects.
Jeremy Brown, a freelance arts worker with the Walsall Community Arts Team, explains: "We are giving a voice to people that often don't have one."
His team recently made a 12-minute documentary with a group of young girls on the town's Goscote estate, where a rise in teenage pregnancies was worrying the local health authority.
Raising self-esteem
The authority turned to the council's community arts team for some ideas and, in turn, the arts team went to the girls on Goscote. "There's a lot of low self-esteem, low aspirations and a lack of role models," says Brown, who got in touch with the girls through local schools and a community figure.
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