h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A ten year old and an eleven year old. Attempted murder.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/7987950.stm



I dont want to get into throwing blame around, but what scares me is that this happening will enrage and upset people, but nothing will change. The people who are living in a world where this is unfortunate but not that far from likely wont notice. That's just life

It always scares me when people too young to understand their actions act like adults whther it's through force or an extremety of a culture gone stale. Or even for any other reason.

I feel for the parents of the injured boys and for the boys themselves, of course I do, but I also feel for the parents of the boys who did this. Their family will have been ripped apart just as much. How can you forgive yourself for letting your young child do something like this? When your entire community will, justifiably, condemn you, then what do you do? I cant help but feel like the impact of this on both families should be being covered. That's as important if not more so than the trial. That's what might, maybe, make people realise these are people getting hurt and families, too.

And what the hell are ten year olds doing? When I was ten I was reading comics and buying penny sweets. Riding my bike up and down the road with friends who lived down the road and generally being a kid. It never involved violence or robbery, except when me and my brother occasionally had a rough and tumble, but even that stopped before any damage was done. We rarely even bruised one another!

Agh, I sometimes, just for a minute, wonder what is the point and wonder whether I'd ever want to have children if this is the world they'd be growing up into...

**I also feel for the parents of the boys who did this. Their family will have been ripped apart just as much.**

Sadly there is no family as such. Both the accused were in foster care and its been reported in several newspapers today that the mother of one of the accused was traced and asked about events. She apparently said she didn't care, it had nothing to do with her. A sad indictment of society today me thinks.
It also brings the spotlight onto Doncaster Social Services again in light of other recent events there.
We really need to get back to basics in terms of discipline, families being families and just good old fashioned common decency and courtesey. Easier said than done I guess.

Cor, thanks for the background ST, I dont get daily papers in here and just had the beeb site for info...

It scares me even more that our most vulnerable children are so badly failed by the adults that are meant to protect and nurture them. I guess we're working with so many problems here - overwork, underpayment plus the wrong people getting the jobs...



That'd be why they didn't mention the parents of the accused on the report on t'news earlier anyway.

I hate to sound like one of those shrugger-offers you get when this sort of thing happens, but don't think this is an indictment on "today's society". A similar thing happened back in 1993 with the death of James Bulger: his murderers were both children too. Going futher back you have a case where a ten year old girl, Mary Bell I think her name was, killed another child back in the 1960s. This sort of thing has occured in the past but it is extremely rare and doesn't seem to be the product of any specific era.

This *would* be an indictment on modern society if it was much more common but, as I said, this sort of thing is rare.

I'm not hugely convinced that things *not quite* this bad aren't rather normal for large swathes of our population... That, I think, is what concerns me.

I do agree with you, I'm not suggesting this is a good barometer on it's own but I do see younger and younger kids doing the aggressive hanging out and smoking and bullying thing that used to happen among older kids when I was younger. I hate the thought of young children having to be that savvy and hard, that's all.

it's grim, this world, at times.

Brings up the constant question of "Nurture or nature"


Anyone can be trained to kill - it is how they deal with it afterwards that is the problem, and some individuals are predisposed to violent and anti-social acts.

Tens of thousands of ordinary individuals (I am sure there are many here) have fought in conflicts producing extrodinary acts of courage and also unspeakable acts of barbarity, yet manage to continue the rest of their lives in relative normality.

I personally wonder if our (supposedly) enlightened society has lost the ability to teach responsibility and self discipline. The art of action and consequences.

I agree with that last paragraph. I dont think by any means that it's a case of everyone all the time, but there's certainly a problem with generations teaching the next generations very little in terms of self control, responsibility and other such wishy washy liberal, humanitarian attitudes...

Responsibility and other such wishy washy liberal, humanitarian attitudes...


Does that mean give the little blighters a bit of 'Empire'

Shackleton, Scott, Oates, and Amundson, they all knew about responsibilty.....harump!

There's also a lack of respect *toward* children. A lack of expecting their to be responsible and able.

A very good and valid point

Also, they'd only been with their foster parents for a month. I feel particularly for them..