LONDON: Britain is becoming a nation increasingly afraid of its young people and this “paedophobia” is causing problems for children as they grow up, a report said.

Britons were far less likely than their European counterparts to stop young people committing antisocial behaviour, because of fears of reprisals, being attacked, or verbal abuse, the study by the Institute of Policy Research (IPPR) found.

It said changes to family, local communities and the economy had combined to cause “deep inequalities” in the transition from childhood to adult life., meaning many young people were incapable of growing up safely or successfully.

A lack of adult supervision because of a breakdown in traditional communities where neighbours looked out for each other’s children had increased the risk of youth crime and violence, it added.

“The debate about childhood in Britain is polarised between false opposites: that either children or adults are to blame,” said Nick Pearce, IPPR director.

“Complex structural changes to our society, coupled with changes to how young people behave, have produced this situation.”

Recent studies by the British Crime Survey have shown that people’s fear of antisocial behaviour is rising and the issue has become a major political cause for Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government.

In August he suggested that the state should intervene early to stop children of problem families growing up into troublemakers.

The IPPR said that 1.5 million Britons now thought about moving away from the area they lived in because of “young people hanging around”.

It said 1.7 million people avoided going out after dark because of their worries about antisocial behaviour which the vast majority blamed on a “lack of discipline”.

Pearce said in the past adults in local communities had kept an eye on children’s behaviour but now were too worried about the consequences.—Reuters