By Dominic Casciani BBC News Online community affairs reporter

New research confirms political apathy among the young - but suggests it's not because they are not interested. What kind of children are we bringing up? Are they turning out to be good kids with a promising future? When they have something to say, does anybody listen?

There's a real deficit in knowledge among the young of the political system - but there's a real interest in single issues.

Tony Breslin, The Citizenship Foundation

The Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme has published the results of its nationwide survey of youth opinion to help find out what our future adults do, say, think and want.

The results suggest there is a level of frustration among many of the young and a degree of fear for their own security in a world where all too often they are the ones blamed when things go wrong.

More than a fifth of those surveyed said they feel unsafe on our streets. Almost double that number predicts the streets will be more dangerous in a decade's time.

Almost 40% of those surveyed said they often felt bored or fed up with their lot.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a whopping 88% told the pollsters they would like to do more to help others less fortunate than themselves - but approximately two-thirds said they had no idea how to do so.

When it comes to more immediate concerns, the survey found nine out of 10 recognised the importance of their exams - but 64% believed they were being forced to sit too many.

Steve Sharp of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme said there was a lot of promise in what they found.

"The positive things are that a majority of young people are interested in their future and are doing well," said Mr Sharp.

"But what it does tell us is that the picture that we often get of young people is not what they are really like."

Frustrations

One of the major themes emerging from the research is frustration with political institutions and authorities.

Distant: Youth feel ignored by Parliament

More than half recognised the way the country runs affects the quality of their lives - but 68% believed the government does not listen to young people.

Three quarters said it was difficult to make their views known.

Only half of those in the survey said they understood how the country is run, the figure falling further among those from poorer backgrounds.

"What we see among young people is that if they get involved locally in an issue and if they are listened to and share in taking decisions, then that sense of involvement grows from the local to the national," said Steve Sharp.

"But we have to remember that the government can't tell people to be more interested in politics, it doesn't work that way."

Active citizenship

What is striking is seven out of 10 said they understood different religions and cultures.

There was also an overwhelming interest in the environment. So while there may be a lack of interest in Westminster, there was a substantial interest in what modern Britain looks like.

This sense of creating active citizens is exercising government - and for good reason.

Big Brother: Millions of votes

According to the British Election Survey, only 52% of the under 24s voted at the 2001 General Election - some 2.2m people. That came a year after research warned the televising of Parliament was turning off an entire generation of new voters (see story links).

By contrast and at the risk of drawing a frivolous comparison, Channel Four's Big Brother, one of the top rating shows among young viewers that year, received 5.4m mobile text message votes alone when it asked viewers to eliminate contestants.

False assumptions

Tony Breslin, head of the Citizenship Foundation which promotes participation in British life, said the survey dealt with one of the most frequent false assumptions about the young - that they don't care.

Top leisure activities:

99%: Television 98% Music 89% Computers 4%: Politics Source: BMRB

"We take this lack of interest in politics as a lack of interest in society," said Mr Breslin.

"But what we tend to find is that young people lack an interest in a group of political institutions because they can't see their relevance.

"Research shows there's a real deficit in knowledge among the young of the political system - but there's a real interest in single issues. This doesn't always work through to traditional political channels."

Mr Breslin said government ambitions to reconnect youth to institutions needed far more than the lip service of the past - but the recent introduction of citizenship to the national curriculum was a good start.

"It's all very well having a school council but if you don't deliver on that promise of democracy then taking part becomes an issue later on. What we haven't ended up with so far are young people who don't care.

"The institutions need to go out and explain their relevance.

"As we saw with Big Brother, voting is popular - just not that popular within the system."

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BMRB surveyed 1010 young people by telephone during August and September 2002 across the UK, excluding Northern Ireland. The respondents were aged between 14 and 19 and the gender split was 50-50. The margin of error is 3%.

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Some of your comments:

Part of the reason for voter apathy has to be based on the perception of politicians as ineffectual career-driven windbags, rather than as progressive reformers. What do these people actually believe in?
Matt, 20, UK

The reason no one votes is it doesn't DO anything. None of the "big" parties have the guts to deal with real issues like immigration. Also we cannot vote on laws. This would help a lot as people would vote for specifics.
Thomas, 19, UK

You have to understand the system to be able to understand the news in the first place. I found out a fair amount from what my parents, but what about the people whose parents don't understand it, because their parents didn't either? So you end up with a downward spiral. Perhaps a regular article or a tutorial-like website with 'beginners politics' is what we need?
Ce'Nedra FlameWings (also known as Helen Hogg), 17, England

At the age of 39 I don't blame young people for being apathetic about politics. The only way to have any influence is to be selected as a member of a focus group which exist only to provide politicians with key words for their slogans. On the BBC's Newsnight during the Tories' last conference, people struggled to tell apart soundbites from Ian Duncan Smith and Tony Blair. I would be surprised if young people were NOT apathetic.
Martin Berridge, UK

Young people lack an interest in a group of political institutions because they can't see their relevance - and so what exactly is the relevance of Big Brother, Pop Idol, Fame Academy and the like for which they vote in their millions?
Joseph, UK

Why are Big Brother and Pop Idol so popular? Because viewers see ordinary people like themselves. Politicians on the other hand are seen as remote, pompous and arrogant.
Andy, UK

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