MANY YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY LIVE. WRITE INFORMATIVELY ABOUT ONE OR MORE OF YOUR CONCERNS AND EXPLAIN THE REASONS FOR THEM.

       I personally take the word ‘mould’ quite literally in this situation. Kate Moss is a prime example of the point I am about to make; stick thin, smoking, drug-taking single mothers gracing the scenes of teenage magazines. Is this really an image the young girls of this era should be seeing? As if peer pressure isn’t enough, the media almost suggests that becoming such a person will make you popular in this world. Instead of inspiring voluptuous models such as Marilyn Monroe, all we see is featherweight girls flaunting their skin and bone, because let’s face it, its nothing more. A few months ago the rumor was that models under a certain size would not be allowed to parade along the catwalk, however I still find myself asking: ‘what size is too small, size 0?’ because I don’t see any difference in the size of catwalk models. I also cannot forget movies around the world; they include more and more violence, sexual harassment scenes and other explicit content. Young people, who don’t have enough basic principles of life, will take such information from the media, as the accepted way of life. Eventually churning out products of today’s mishaps, creating a world I hope I never live to see.

       The media doesn’t just stop at influencing how teens look, but also how they speak and behave. Comedy is not about humor anymore. It has turned into sarcasm. Jokes are made out of anything and everything; religion, disabled people, gay people, people of colour, everything. And the problem is the media seems to show its audience that this is the cool thing to do. So now, as we can see, there are lots of teenagers around the world who speak sarcastically to each other, using offensive, slang words all too often causing unrest within cities, starting street fights and other atrocities.

       Constantly abusing it’s viewers, is television. It promotes the entirely wrong message in a way that is so manipulative; it could make even vomit seem appealing. I’ll use sex as an example. Sex is just another "indoor hobby" and can be "used" as casually as going to the flicks to watch a movie. - This is the image we are presented. What isn't presented anywhere here is the beauty of sex. It is the unity of two people in a very meaningful and loving act, and should be treated with the utmost respect because it really is a beautiful thing. It's love at its peak. Television tells us exactly the opposite with the "don't take it too seriously" attitude. What happened to love, not to mention feelings? It's basically all crash and burn... without love all that's left is filth, disgust, loneliness, abuse and a hell of a lot of hurt. I only have to look at Shameless to support my point, a program that appeals to most of my friends. Personally I find it alarming that the supposed dysfunction of some of present-day families is turned into a parody, shouldn’t we be perturbed by the way some people choose to live? Pardon me if I seem a prude but a life of drugs and jumping from bed to bed doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest.

       As mentioned before, the government likes to use censorship when divulging information to the public, but why not use such a tool on the internet. I am sure everyone is aware of websites such as ‘Myspace’ and ‘faceparty,’ both are internet sites where anyone, from anywhere in the world can publish information and photographs of themselves and other people. What the youth of today probably don’t realize most of the time is that, aswell as anyone having the ability to publish things on the internet; anybody can also access this information. Of course, you agree to several things upon registration to these websites, but who reads the mile-long list of terms and conditions? I’ll openly admit to not doing so. And there is also a certain age you have to be to use such sites; but even a half-wit can work out what their birth date would be if they were 16. Consequently the number of 12 year olds using such menacing sites is on the increase, encouraging the sick individuals of this world to pry on innocent young faces; posing as someone of their age, grooming them into a possible meet. We complain about child pornography and such but these children are essentially fueling such a disgusting habit, a harsh but true fact. I understand that these untoward characters have their own means and ways of finding such warped material but ‘Myspace’ and ‘Faceparty’ must be a playground for them!

       On the other hand, I understand that the media is an excellent source of information, whether it is websites such as ‘GCSE bitesize revision’ or TV programs such as ‘15 to 1,’ the media is undoubtedly education at our fingertips. But we definitely need to learn separate the wheat from the chaff, if we don’t the quality of our children’s lives is definitely in question!

        The media is dictating our lives from what we should say to how we should dress, it is controlling our lives whether we like it or not, we need to take more care.