When I was growing up, risk taking meant crossing a busy road. Or cycling for the first time without stabilisers. It's a different story these days.
Take for instance the recent stories of young girls being caught stealing their parent's car - they were hardly able to see over the top of the steering wheel.
There has also been lots in the press about increased levels of drug and alcohol use among young people. Recently, these two issues came together locally with tragic results. A lad of 13, high on alcohol and drugs, crashed a car and was killed. The impact on children and young people I work with has been phenomenal.
I was sitting in work last week talking to a lad currently living in a residential unit. He looked knackered and I asked what he had been doing.
"Been on a day-long bender," he yawned. "Went to that boy's funeral and partied afterwards." I asked him a bit about the lad, and we talked about how upset so many young people were.
"Do you know something?" he asked suddenly. "I've been doing cannabis and pills since I was 11. I loved the thrill of taking risks, but where has it got me? I haven't been in school for years, I've got a police record and now I'm in a children's home. That lad that was killed took one risk too many. It has really shocked me and me mates, and we want to stop doing drugs. What good did they do him?"
My jaw unwittingly dropped at the "pills since 11" bit but more than that, I was stunned by his insight into his own life, and how the harsh reality of the consequences of risk taking had hit him like a bolt from the blue. At 13, he had the rest of his life to get on with and he was determined to learn from both his own and his mates' experiences and move on.
His words captured the realities of being a young person in 2005. We need to teach children and young people to manage risk safely. I've got a strong feeling that, with support, this lad will be okay. He's up for joining our peer education project and the chances are that the messages he will give to children and young people about the pros and cons of risk taking will be more meaningful than any teaching pack or advertising campaign could ever be.
